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Paul Taylor Dance Company Has Cause for Celebration
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Paul Taylor has been a lot of things over his 80-year career: a dancer, a pioneer, a choreographer, the subject of an Academy Award nominated documentary (Dancemaker), and an icon. His new works continue to demonstrate an untarnished ability to translate movement into works of art.
Paul Taylor Dance Company’s 2010 season at the New York City Center (Feb. 24-March 14) honors his command of the stage, and serves as an 80th birthday celebration with programs than span the wide scope of his repertoire and include two new works making their New York debuts. Also, on March 6, all tickets to the matinee performance will be just $8, a special birthday gift from Mr. Taylor.
This season, Also Playing and Brief Encounters will be making their New York premieres. Also Playing is a fun tribute to vaudeville dancers. Set to the operas of Gaetano Donizetti, Taylor parades the stage with “a true hoofer” (a tap-dancing horse), a toreador and her easily startled bulls, a dying swan caught up in her woes, and an inspired stagehand. The other New York premiere, Brief Encounters, will be part of the opening night program at the City Center. In Mr. Taylor’s ever enduring exploration of music, he has choreographed this new work to a Debussy score he used in his 1977 work Images, only this time he utilizes the orchestral score of “Le Coin des Enfants,” instead of the one for solo piano. The work focuses on “momentary connections” rather than “ongoing relationships.” The programs will include a range of works exhibiting his creative mastery over decades of his career from the aforementioned recent pieces to Public Domain (1968) and Scudorama (1963).
Rarely can someone live up to his own genius time and time again, so this 2010 season at the City Center is a wonderful way to see how it’s done.
For a schedule of programs and to purchase tickets visit www.nycitycenter.org.