Having attended performances by the company several times this year, I begin to recognize some of its movement vocabulary. Taylor work is not only aware of arms but often uses them as if to propel. Aloft bodies are frequently held upside-down before they curl righting themselves perhaps on a partner’s shoulder. Hops, jumps and tiny steps arrive when least expected as does irreverence…This evening’s three dances, all choreographed by Taylor, continue to exhibit variety.
Polaris (1976)
Music – Donald York ; Set/Costumes – Alex Katz; Lighting- Jennifer Tipton
Like Picasso, Taylor here experiments with slightly different interpretation of the same vision. Choreography, in and around a box frame is the same in parts one and two. Dancers are switched out one by one; music and lighting changes. There’s formality, erectness to this first piece. Bends and lifts are orderly even when limbs splay. Sequences repeatedly find four dancers circling a fifth. Abruptly, they roll around.
Photo by Whitney Browne
Smiles emerge and grow as dancers venture outside the box. A solo is exuberant. During the pas de deux, partners face one another, separate to move on their own axes and return, until finally, a touch provokes melding. Mime-like hands move along invisible walls. Limbs seem to stretch as the figures shift concave to convex. Shoulders circle. Small jumps are contained. There’s a headstand. At last, arms reach straight up.
The music of part II is tense, daunting. Facial expressions are serious. We’re locked into comparison by the same black and white costumes and rigid set, but what was freeing is now fraught, furtive. The soloist is pained. This second group of dancers is, alas, not in sync. Polaris is intriguing.
Tablet (1960)
Music – David Hollister; Design – Ellsworth Kelly; Set Reconstruction -Santo Loquasto; Lighting -Jennifer Tipton
Photo by Steven Pisano
Dancers appear to be contemporary harlequins, he in white face, she with white make-up circling her face. Brightly colored costumes each have a geometric shape on the front of leotards – striking. Music is slow. Arms entwine moving down haunches. Partners slide fluidly to the floor. Movement, like Morse Code, emerges graceful and slow, then sharply fast, fast, fast. The pair is expressionless.
Arms extend, hands flutter. Bends rotate side to side and forward. Arms windmill. Sliding to knees is swift. She leaps into his arms, then flips upside-down, arms after legs around his neck. Many of the moves are insect-like, grasshopper, mantis? He hops sideways on his haunches. We may not see antennae, but feel their presence. Changes in air are instinctively sensed. Bent arms form an empty heart.
Cloven Kingdom (1976) “Man is a social animal.” Spinoza
Music – Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Cowell, Malloy Miller – Combined by John Herbert McDowell
Women’s Costumes – Scott Barrie; Headpieces – John Rawlings; Lighting – Jennifer Tipton
Women wear long, swishing dresses, earrings, lipstick; men are in tails. New, repeated gestures are bent elbows, fingers touching shoulders and extended arms, hands hanging down flat. Music darts back and forth from lush Corelli to percussive drums and hollow knocks. The latter evokes machinery. Sounds of a xylophone oppose strings.
Photo by Ben McKeown
Just as we sympathetically sway, thump, thrum, rumble dictates edgy, knife-like steps. Arms cross on chests. The women whirl, then suddenly wiggle their derrieres as if barrel-house flirting. There are somersaults and rolls, both on the floor and across other bodies. Intermittently, dancers with mirrored headpieces join, throwing reflective light. Look and feel is Bauhaus. One crawls beneath/ through the skirt of another.
Men whirl on their knees, move forward on their rears. Arm over arm a group sharply jumps, steps, kicks, and leaps. Heads snap now this way, now that. This section is extraordinarily original. Small gestures punctuate-fists hit palms. Arms emulate folded wings. A smooth turn is contrasted by rolling heads. Dancers corkscrew down. Some are on all-fours. An arch is formed. Others pass beneath. Those not in headdresses return with mirrored masks. Couples dance formally. Women cartwheel. Again, we end, all arms straight up, reaching. Captivating.
Opening Photo Cloven Kingdom by Paul B. Goode
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Founding Artistic Director – Paul Taylor
Artistic Director – Michael Novak
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue at 19 Street
June 17-22, 2025
