"Book of Beasts", "Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal)", "Black Tuesday"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
November 8, 2023
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill
This all-Taylor program showed the choreographer looking backwards, from the zany take on Medieval bestiaries (combined with satires of ballet dancers) of “Book of Beasts”, to the odd homage to Nijinsky in “Le Sacre du Printemps (the Rehearsal)” with its oblique references to gangster melodramas, and ending with “Black Tuesday”, Taylor’s salute to Americans in the Depression, set to recordings of popular songs from the period. The program also gave the Orchestra of St. Luke’s a night off, since in addition to the recorded songs of “Black Tuesday”, "Book of Beasts” used what sounded like a child’s harpsichord, played with verve by Matthew Lewis, the two piano score of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” made by Stravinsky for Nijinsky’s rehearsals played by Margaret Kampmeier and Blair McMillen.
Paul Taylor dancers in "Book of Beasts" photo © Whitney Browne