"Drawn", "The Pink Pony", "Changeling", "Cut Open"
Annmaria Mazzini and Dancers
The Paul Taylor Dance Company Studio
New York, New York
December 7, 2012
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2012 by Mary Cargill
Annmaria Mazzini, the former Paul Taylor dancer who recently had hip surgery, has returned to the stage as a dancer/choreographer, with a small company and an imaginative program. She was always an incisive, instinctively dramatic dancer, who could make the smallest gesture resonate, and moved with a rare combination of power and femininity. Her choreography, at least based on this one viewing, too, combines power with a dramatic undercurrent; there were real people on the stage, not just abstract movers.
The brief opening piece "Drawn", a pas des deux for Her (Evelyn Wheeler) and Him (Yon Burke), was a picture of two people, needing each other, yet resenting that need, and alternated between hints of violence and desperation, as both alternately tried to break free yet returned to each other. It wasn't a pleasant picture, but it was compelling.
"The Pink Pony" was a short 2008 film by John Walter featuring Mazzini in the Pink Pony bar waiting for the computer date from hell--when he showed up, he was nothing like the advertisement. The brief, funny dialog ended with the poor man saying "so you are a dancer?", giving Mazzini the opening to burst into movement, as if the Winged Victory had come to life. "Look at me", she seemed to say, "but don't dare think that you are getting any nearer", as she strutted out the door.
"Changeling" was the centerpiece of the program, a longer, more complicated work; a bit too complicated, as it was difficult to tell which dancer was the Coyote Trickster, the Wolf Angel, the Wild Horse, and so on. In European folklore, a changeling is a substitute for a human baby, left by magical creatures who prefer the mortal child. (The most famous ballet version of the story is Bournonville's iridescent "A Folk Tale".) But Mazzini's changeling is a human who is half animal, and seems to have been inspired by Native American lore.
The prelude featured paintings by Susan Seddon Boulet, magical works showing humans morphing into animals. Elizabeth Bragg was, according to the program "a human on an animal journey", where she meets various other members of the pack. Her opening solo combined tension and ritual, as the vaguely stylized movements reached upwards. Bragg combined power with vulnerability, dancing with an underlying restlessness which was never mawkish. The various animal-like creatures she encountered showed strength with animalistic pawings, crouching, and wing-like arms, but Mazzini never became cute or anthropomorphic. It was their nature she brought out, not their furry surface. The dance was a bit too long and diffuse, but the shifting patterns and pulsating movement was truly fascinating.
The evening closed with a solo for Mazzini, "Cut Open", a rather obliquely titled piece to a recording of Debussy about what appeared to be an older woman remembering her past. Mazzini wore a short purple shift, with long black gloves, which gave her a subtle hint of sophistication. The movement was economical and dynamic, as she remembered past joys and pain, with flashes of anger, tempered with resignation. There were hints, obviously, of Taylor in her choreography, but there is also a personal stamp, a directness that speaks so clearly to the audience.
Photos by Sarah Sterner.
Top: Rachel Holmes, Evelyn Wheeler, and Sylvana Tapia in "Changeling"
Bottom: Annmaria Mazzini in "Cut Open"
Copyright 2012 by Mary Cargill