Paul Taylor's "Last Look" & 2 Solos
"Dance is the Answer" KickOff
4th Floor Studio
The Music Center at Strathmore
North Bethesda, Maryland
April 23, 2009
by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by GJ
Why take that last look? Because you must. Knowing beforehand what there is to be seen makes no difference. All that is awful is scrutinized again to be sure nothing has changed. But how reliable is that sallow gaze? Does the mirror distort? To stand still and peer is an act of self violence. Twitch, muscle, twitch! Touching another's flesh triggers paroxysms galore.
The horrible, sorry humanity of "Last Look" infects viewers. There's no hope from the start, although there's certainty that all spasms, every stumble, each fall is deserved somehow. People remember Paul Taylor's 1985 dance when they themselves sicken.
This premiere by CityDance Ensemble was the first time "Last Look" has been performed by another than Taylor's own company. It is a rendition that grabs you, pulls you in and lodges under the skin. It doesn't wash off. Patrick Corbin, once a local lad like Taylor himself, staged the work for Paul Gordon Emerson's company. Michael Trusnovec jumped in from New York to replace an absent CityDancer as the intense looker and for the big duet with Alice Wylie. Maleek Washington in the first male solo, Delphina Parenti in the first female solo, Giselle Alvarez in another female solo, Kathryn Pilkington as the assaulted female, Jason Ignacio, Christopher Morgan and Liz Gahl were the others one pitied and feared. The pulse of an an earlier danse macabre, Ravel's "La Valse", surges through Donald York's musical score but he and Taylor make decay a phenomenon of up-to-date pollution, disease and disaster. Alex Katz's apparel - the drab, utilitarian men's wear versus the tarnished yet gaudy dresses of the women - seems inexplicably right. This was the only at home showing before CityDance tours "Last Look" to Jordan, the Palestinian West Bank, Israel and South America.
Also on this kickoff for Washington's dance week (April 23- May 3) were two solos - Anna Sokolow's Lorca-based "Lament for the Death of a Bull Fighter" (not its younger sibling - Doris Humphrey's "Lament for Ignazio Sanchez Mejia" from 1946) and a contemporary piece of ballet/African fusion. The Sokolow, which juggles stoicism with stabs of grief, was danced by Stephanie Todd Wong, returning from maternity leave to Daniel Phoenix Singh's Dakshina company. Andile Ndlovu, from South Africa and currently with Washington Ballet's Studio Company, gave the fusion solo - Gregory Vuyani Maqoma's "Beyond Skin" - bravura treatment. Hosts for the event were Step Afrika's C. Brian Williams, Washington Ballet's David Palmer, Emerson of CityDance and the Diaghilev of "Dance is the Answer" - Peter DiMuro of Washington's umbrella organization, Dance Metro DC.
