Tag: Robert Kleinendorst

Paul Taylor @ Lincoln Center 2016 – Part II

Above, one of the best of the best: Robert Kleinendorst of PTAMD

Tuesday March 29th, 2016 – This evening’s performance by Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance in the final week of their Lincoln Center season opened with a classic Taylor ‘white’ ballet, Equinox, set to music of Johannes Brahms which was performed (lovingly) live by a string quintet.

Two principal couples – Laura Halzack with Robert Kleinendorst and Paris Khobdeh with Michael Apuzzo – perform some of Paul Taylor’s most inventive and pleasing partnering passages with a feeling of lyrical athleticism. A long solo by Ms. Halzack was enchanting to behold. A quartet of dancers – too stellar to be deemed “supporting” – moved with captivating urgency and grace: Michelle Fleet, Eran Bugge, Sean Mahoney, and James Samson. The white costumes evoke Summer, but the Brahms themes hint at the approach of Autumn. Heartfelt dancing and playing from everyone involved.

The Weight of Smoke (a new Doug Elkins work) was a hot mess. The choreography is loaded with gimmicks and clichés while the fusion of Baroque (here, Handel) with contemporary club beats and noisy effects has been done before and has lost its cleverness. The dancers may have enjoyed the opportunity to cut loose, not having to think too much about technique or precision, but to me (and my choreographer-companion) the work seemed endlessly aimless and mildly embarrassing. Laced with gender-bending elements, with two women in a sustained kiss, and sashaying gay-boy stereotypes, the work ambled on with lots of energy being expended on retro-provocations. In the end, I was thinking: “You have sixteen of the best dancers on the planet to work with, and this is what you came up with?”

The evening ended on the highest of possible high notes with Paul Taylor’s Promethean Fire; the same sixteen dancers who slogged their way thru the tedious Elkins now appeared in Santo Loquasto’s incredible black costumes and treated us to a feast of impeccable dancing in this darkly dazzling ballet.

Paul Taylor’s choreography here gives Mr B a run for his money in terms of musicality and structure…and it looks gorgeous on Mr. B’s own stage. The Leopold Stokowski orchestrations of music by J. S. Bach seem jarring at first but Mr. Taylor was right to choose them as they mesh well with the opulent energy of the dancing.

The live music (Orchestra of Saint Luke’s under Donald York’s baton) was a wonderful enhancement to the onstage splendour; it’s a great piece for zeroing in on individual dancers as they move with such assurance and beauty of spirit thru choreography that must be a sheer delight to dance.

The central passage of Promethean Fire is a pas de deux which was danced tonight by Parisa Khobdeh and Michael Trusnovec (above). Their physical allure and their sense of the importance of the steps and port de bras made this such a richly rewarding experience, both visually and spiritually.

Production photo © 2015 Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance

March 30, 2016
Paul Taylor @ Lincoln Center 2016 – Part II

Above, one of the best of the best: Robert Kleinendorst of PTAMD

Tuesday March 29th, 2016 – This evening’s performance by Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance in the final week of their Lincoln Center season opened with a classic Taylor ‘white’ ballet, Equinox, set to music of Johannes Brahms which was performed (lovingly) live by a string quintet.

Two principal couples – Laura Halzack with Robert Kleinendorst and Paris Khobdeh with Michael Apuzzo – perform some of Paul Taylor’s most inventive and pleasing partnering passages with a feeling of lyrical athleticism. A long solo by Ms. Halzack was enchanting to behold. A quartet of dancers – too stellar to be deemed “supporting” – moved with captivating urgency and grace: Michelle Fleet, Eran Bugge, Sean Mahoney, and James Samson. The white costumes evoke Summer, but the Brahms themes hint at the approach of Autumn. Heartfelt dancing and playing from everyone involved.

The Weight of Smoke (a new Doug Elkins work) was a hot mess. The choreography is loaded with gimmicks and clichés while the fusion of Baroque (here, Handel) with contemporary club beats and noisy effects has been done before and has lost its cleverness. The dancers may have enjoyed the opportunity to cut loose, not having to think too much about technique or precision, but to me (and my choreographer-companion) the work seemed endlessly aimless and mildly embarrassing. Laced with gender-bending elements, with two women in a sustained kiss, and sashaying gay-boy stereotypes, the work ambled on with lots of energy being expended on retro-provocations. In the end, I was thinking: “You have sixteen of the best dancers on the planet to work with, and this is what you came up with?”

The evening ended on the highest of possible high notes with Paul Taylor’s Promethean Fire; the same sixteen dancers who slogged their way thru the tedious Elkins now appeared in Santo Loquasto’s incredible black costumes and treated us to a feast of impeccable dancing in this darkly dazzling ballet.

Paul Taylor’s choreography here gives Mr B a run for his money in terms of musicality and structure…and it looks gorgeous on Mr. B’s own stage. The Leopold Stokowski orchestrations of music by J. S. Bach seem jarring at first but Mr. Taylor was right to choose them as they mesh well with the opulent energy of the dancing.

The live music (Orchestra of Saint Luke’s under Donald York’s baton) was a wonderful enhancement to the onstage splendour; it’s a great piece for zeroing in on individual dancers as they move with such assurance and beauty of spirit thru choreography that must be a sheer delight to dance.

The central passage of Promethean Fire is a pas de deux which was danced tonight by Parisa Khobdeh and Michael Trusnovec (above). Their physical allure and their sense of the importance of the steps and port de bras made this such a richly rewarding experience, both visually and spiritually.

Production photo © 2015 Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance

March 29, 2016
Paul Taylor @ Lincoln Center 2013 #4

Above: Robert Kleinendorst of Paul Taylor Dance Company in SPEAKING IN TONGUES. Photo by Paul B Goode. Click on the image to enlarge.

Thursday March 21st, 2013 – Paul Taylor Dance Company have been celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach throughout their current Lincoln Center season: there’s been a Bach ballet on every programme and today – the actual birthdate of the peerless composer – the dancers gave a glorious performance of ESPLANADE, seeming to up their ‘normal’ level of energy, musicality, passion and sheer daring to a breathtaking point.

The programme opened with SPEAKING IN TONGUES, a complex work which always leaves me with mixed feelings. Matthew Patton’s score does not seem strong enough to sustain a ballet which lasts almost an hour, and to my aging ears the interjections of spoken word no longer have the clarity needed to make a dramatic impact. The work stretches long, but there is no part of it that seems expendable: it is what it is, and perhaps best viewed with a focus on individual dancers.

Surely there are few dance experiences today to equal the thrill of watching Michael Trusnovec onstage. This dancer with his taut, slender muscularity and singular artistry gave a transfixing rendering of the preacher-man’s opening solo and then moved thru the rest of the ballet with compelling dramatic intensity. Likewise Robert Kleinendorst as the Odd Man Out struck a vibrant note as his open, innocent personality is slowly dismantled by the holier-than-thou congregation; he’s literally beaten into submission, and at last taken into the cult. Also making a strong impact in this work were Amy Young, Laura Halzack, James Samson, Sean Mahoney, Jamie Rae Walker, Aileen Roehl, Heather McGinley, Michael Novak and Michael Apuzzo. Those sumptuous beauties Parisa Khobdeh and Michelle Fleet were outstanding in their prominent solo passages.

My companion for the evening, choreographer Lydia Johnson, helped me to see this work in a somewhat different light than I had previously, and to understand why the dancers love dancing SPEAKING IN TONGUES.

Seeing Taylor’s ESPLANADE on Balanchine’s stage made for a joyful experience: the two great masters of modern and ballet choreography each turned to the same Bach music and thus ESPLANADE reminds us of CONCERTO BAROCCO, as different as they are in style and setting. And one of my favorite BAROCCO ballerinas, Teresa Reichlen, was sitting a few rows behind us.

In ESPLANADE the sense of dynamism and physical risk play high, and the superb collective of Taylor dancers went at it with unfettered vitality: Amy Young, Laura Halzack, Eran Bugge, Parisa Khobdeh, Jamie Rae Walker, Robert Kleinendorst, Francisco Graciano and George Smallwood all looked smashingly beautiful and grand, and if it was Michelle Fleet who ended up stealing our collective hearts, that too was part of Taylor’s plan. The audience, psyched by the fantastic performance, erupted in a massive ovation when the choreographer appeared onstage for a bow.

March 21, 2013
Three Paul Taylor Masterpieces

Above: Robert Kleinendorst and Eran Bugge in Paul Taylor’s ESPLANADE, photo by Paul B Goode. Click on the image to enlarge.

Saturday March 24, 2012 evening – To see ROSES again was a major reason to attend Paul Taylor Dance Company‘s performance at Lincoln Center this evening. The cast of dancers was the same as at the earlier performance I had seen, and they again made a profoundly satisfying impression. There is so much tenderness in this work, and it is very moving to see the relationships between the various members of the Company which – under the romantic surface of the piece – seem to reflect their affection and respect for each other as dancers and as colleagues.

As the poignant strains of the Siegfried Idyll fade away, Eran Bugge (above) and Michael Trusnovec appear like shining angels in white and dance a sublime duet in which time seems to stand still. ROSES creates such a heart-filling atmosphere; I wish it was being danced more often this season because I would go every single time.

Above: Fracisco Graciano and Parisa Kobdeh in THE UNCOMMITTED, photo by Tom Caravaglia.

THE UNCOMMITTED seemed an exact counter-balance to ROSES. Whereas the latter is all about settled relationships and the quiet joys of companionship and trust, THE UNCOMMITTED charts its craggy course amid the rocks and reefs of isolation and inability to connect. The incandescent music of Arvo Part gives the work an almost spiritual quality.

In the opening segment, each dancer (Michelle Fleet, above, in a Tom Caravaglia photo) has a solo passage expressing frustration, restlessness or dismay; these are people who cannot (or who don’t really want to) forge links with others in the group. Each soloist is ‘dropped off’ to dance, then re-absorbed into the collective but never really becoming part of it.

A series of duets ensue (Laura Halzack and Michael Trusnovec, above in a Tom Caravaglia photo) but the couples – though sometimes seeming to hover on the brink of romantic unity – always end up escaping one another. No one is really ready or willing to settle down, the conflict between desire and wariness always ending in turning away. THE UNCOMMITTED seems like a dancework that will continue eternally even after the curtain has come down. It’s a piece that speaks strongly to me.

The sheer, sunny simplicity of ESPLANADE – its structured and sometimes whimisical exploration of walking, running, jumping and falling – always makes for a joyful finale to a Taylor evening. Set to music of Bach, it builds to an exciting conclusion as the dancers fling themselves onto the floor in fearless sliding motifs. The cast of nine (but did I spy a tenth?) included the radiant Amy Young and the elegant beauty Laura Halzack (wearing pants), with Michelle Fleet in an especially dynamic performance.

Taylor audiences are the best: wonderfully focussed during the dancing and unbridled in their enthusiasm during the curtain calls.

March 24, 2012