"Brandenburgs", "Brief Encounters", "Also Playing"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
March 2, 2010
by Mary Cargill
Copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill
There are, to over-generalize, three faces to Paul Taylor, the serene, the dark, and the comic. Two of them, the serene and the comic, were featured at the gala performance. The first, "Brandenburgs", was choreographed in 1988, and the other two are new this year. Unfortunately, for me, though not for the audience, the new ones were disappointing. The dancing, however, was not, as the company looked powerful and engaged. "Brandenburgs", set to selections of Bach (financial considerations have forced to company to rely on taped music), is a compendium of the Taylor signatures (springy jumps, open-hearted arms, a male solo). It breaks no new ground, and probably didn't when it was new, but Taylor's old ground is fertile enough to bear re-plowing, and its golden serenity, matching the timeless cheerfulness of the music, is truly beautiful. Michael Trusnovec led the group of bounding men, interrupted by three women. It seemed at times as if it were a version of the Judgment of Paris, with Eran Bugge as a cheeky, irresistible Venus.
"Brief Encounters" was the punning title of new work to Claude Debussy's lush "Le Coin des Enfants". The scantily clad dancers briefly encountered each other in various permutations of longing and desire. Though the choreography was fluid and the dancing magnificent,I found the costumes distracting. Though the dances were far from titillating, watching it felt at times like being in the middle of a Victoria's Secret advertisement.
"Also Playing" was one of Taylor's nods to, quoting the program, "all Vaudevillians, especially those who went on no matter what." It was a take-off of old-time routines, set to irresistibly bouncy music by Donizetti. Comedy is hard to do, and unlike some of Taylor's others, for instance the evergreen "Offenbach Overtures", this one tries too hard. There are certainly fine moments--Francisco Graciano and Michael Apuzzo were daffy and musical as a couple of soft-shoe dancers, and the homage to Pavlova headdresses were charming. But often the humor degenerated into the obvious; the Trocaderos have a monopoly of take-offs of "The Dying Swan", and knock-kneed ballerinas grow old quickly, as do gum chewing dancers who stick a piece on the scenery. Only the stagehand, Robert Kleinendorst, conveyed some of the tenderness that Taylor so obviously has for these troupers.
copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill
Photos
Top: Annmaria Mazzini, Michelle Fleet, and Jeffrey Smith in "Also Playing" by Tom Caravaglia
Bottom: Amy Young and Francisco Graciano in "Brief Encounters" by Tom Caravaglia
