Paul Taylor Dance Company performs at Newman Center

Brings 64 years of modern dance

BY SONYA ELLINGBOE

SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Every seat was lled at the Newman Center’s Gates Concert Hall on March 27 when the New Yorkbased Paul Taylor Dance Company performed as part of this season’s “Newman Center Presents” series. e company, which rst performed in New York City in May of 1954, is now directed by former company member Michael Novak, following Taylor’s death in 2018. He was chosen by Taylor to follow as director and is leading the current national tour.

In the course of Taylor’s 64 years with the modern dance company, he choreographed 147 dances, as well as performing works by other choreographers. He used music from many di erent genres.

On March 27, the program began with a dance called “Arden,” with music by British composer William Boyce (1711-1779), a contemporary of Handel. We assume it refers to England’s legendary Forest of Ardena, where 1,000-year-old trees are still found.

Taylor’s choreography is never stately like an ancient tree might be, but this work, which used nine dancers, was somewhat more slowly-paced than the works that followed.

A medley of Andrews Sisters’ songs from the WWII era was used for a slightly-less frantically-paced work called “Company B.”

It was rst performed in 2992 and seems slightly more relaxed in pace. It included a number of songs that were popular in the 1940s. Older readers will remember “Bei Mir Bist du Schone,” “Pennsylvania Polka,” “Two-Two,” “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!,” “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” and “Joseph! Joseph!” from school dances and radio broadcasts perhaps. It called out the 16-member traveling company and was rst performed in 1991.

“Rush Hour,” the third dance the troupe performed is set to music by American composer Adam Crystal, showed a particular interest in writing for dancers and lms. It dates to a 2016 rst production and involve all 16 dancers who are touring, with frantic movement as singles, pairs and as groups.

With “Rush Hour,” special geometric lighting design by Clifton Taylor and trim black and grey costumes by Fritz Masten added an additional theatrical feel to this work, which verges on frantic o and on. It involved all 16 dancers who are part of this tour and was originally presented in March, 2016. e company has toured all parts of the world on good will visits on behalf of the U.S. State Department, sharing it’s teeasure trove of dances, as well as appearing in many U.S. theaters. We’ll hope for a return.

At the start, a large pink Peony lls part of the rear wall and by the second part, dancers, clad in cleverly-designed costumes in black snd grey,s, with a good bit of detail on them. oor and stage walls have changed to geometric forms instead... e Crystal music is borderline-frantic-or at least darker in mood, as all sixteen dancers rush, leap and move otherwise—with precisely-designed combinations of steps in every case, but designed to give an impression that everyone is urgently going somewhere, in a disjointed, frantic manner... Has a New York City street scene feel about it, for sure! Or, it could be London, Paris or Hong Kong...

Members of this dance company mostly bring college degrees to the job and the talented Taylor was a MacArthur Genius awardee, who received a 1993 National Medal of Arts-our highest honor-from President Clinton.

He choreographed 147 of the more than 170 dances in the company’s repertoire.

In May, the Newman Center plans to announce its next season of “Newman Center Presents, which will include concerts, lecture and more dance. We look forward to another season there and elsewhere around the area—thankful that the arts are up and running again!