Paul Taylor had Graham Spanier talking about his moves. Before Taylor came out to greet the audience, Spanier said, “For a dancer like me,” pause for laughter, “whose right hip doesn’t know what his left is doing, I consider [Taylor] a marvel!”
That, if nothing else, makes Taylor worthy in my book of being the 2011 recipient of the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) Medal for Distinguished Achievement. Incidentally, Taylor is also special for being the only medal recipient to be born in Pennsylvania, giving the crowd attending Taylor’s performance last Thursday at Eisenhower Auditorium a rush of home state pride. Taylor’s performance was one of the first few performances thus far in the 2011 – 2012 Center for the Performing Arts season, which is shaping up to be a good one!
At the top of the evening, Michael B�rub�, the IAH director, introduced the video that would detail Taylor’s trajectory from professional dancer to choreographer. The video, produced with the help of WPSU, featured an exposition of Taylor’s work written by B�rub� and Amy Vashaw. To hear B�rub� talk is to listen to an engaging essay, but even hearing his writing contribution narrated by Patty Satalia, it was clear he could articulate a thesis like nobody’s business. The video got me jazzed to see Taylor’s work live, especially his finale, choreographed to Piazzolla Caldera. I knew from the moment I caught a glimpse of this dance in the introduction that it was going to be my favorite performance.
But just like anything that’s good, it was saved till the very end. I flicked through my program one last time to get a feel for the evening ahead before the house lights dimmed and the show was about to begin. Once the curtain rose, I was glad I did take that extra second to scan my program. I happened to catch the name Jennifer Tipton as the “Lighting by” credit, and I was glad, as the show began, that I had a name in mind to be thanking. The opening dance was lit in such a crisp white light that the entire stage looked fresh, including the dancers in their deer and moss colored costumes. Tipton was just as much a contributing artist to the scene as was Taylor in his crafting of the leaps and twirls that seemed to tell an early forest awakening through the movements of Bach’s Brandenburgs. Every time one of the women spun across the stage, her skirt bellowed out in a velvet lily.
More female dancers came out for the second sequence in the ensemble of dances. The ratio was almost even as the men and women entered the stage in torn, gauzy red-blue or green-brown leotards. The dance Taylor choreographed to The Uncommitted was much more active and much less fragile than the first sequence. Taylor created such a sad illustration of being alone in the world. All eleven dancers on stage lined up in a circle, first walking around it then gradually running around it, until two circles broke off from the original one as if in mitosis. One girl was left out in the middle. She looked to the right and made as if to join that circle, but didn’t quite fit, so then she looked to the left and tried to jump in, but that was hard, too. Finally, she fell in behind the left circle, but I was left with such sadness for the lonely dancer that still didn’t quite fit.
But finally, finally, my anticipation was satisfied with the dance to the Piazzolla Caldera. Taylor was quoted in the introductory video as describing this dance as the physical narrative of the sex act. There was great movement in this tango-tap hybrid dance that Taylor crafted, which was perfectly complemented by the tattered dresses that registered every movement, and the moving metal light fixtures that mirrored the fanned out shape of the dresses worn in Brandenburgs. The intensity of the dance was on edge the whole time. Each movement hit with the tight perfection of passion. The dance was the perfect combination of all the previous elements Taylor had exhibited in his choreography.
I didn’t want it to end. But when it inevitably did, I walked out of the auditorium feeling incredibly grateful to the Center for the Performing Arts for giving me the opportunity to attend the Paul Taylor Dance Company performance. I encourage everyone to check out the rest of the performances that the CPA has to offer!
