BWW Reviews: Mixed Feelings About Paul Taylor - Le Sacre Du Printemps, The Uncommitted, and Promethean Fire

Martha Graham once called Paul Taylor the "naughty boy" of dance, and with good reason! Throughout his career, Taylor has surprised audiences with his unique and provocative works. While many artists have accomplished the task of shocking their viewers, Taylor has consistently been able to balance the outrageous with the beautiful. The style for which this iconoclastic choreographer is known is distinctly athletic, and draws directly from modern dance pioneers that came just a generation before him. Tonight's program showcased these qualities. Le Sacre du Printemps (the Rehearsal), The Uncommitted and Promethean Fire each revealed a different side of the Taylor repertory, and together proved to be a thrilling night of dance.

The program began with Taylor's version of Sacre, the triumph of the evening. Taylor's twist on the Stravinsky score is totally original. Straying from the traditional sacrificial theme that other choreographers have exhausted, Taylor uses the score to tell the story of a woman struggling with the abduction of her baby. As serious as this might appear, Taylor brings a refreshing levity to a rather intimidating score to create an intelligent and alluring Rite of Spring. His ability to tell this rather complex story through a mixture of pedestrian and extremely athletic movements is commendable. Though very different from the Nijinsky Sacre, Taylor's staging gave the audience a few tastes of the original; the piece was peppered with archaic shapes and frenetic stomping jumps. The dance highlights the company's narrative abilities and utilizes gymnastic partnering alongside clever musical phrasing, much to the delight of viewers. Laura Halzack, who played The Girl, was excellent as a grieving mother driven to madness and suicide over the death of her child. Her frantic and broken portrayal of a woman in utter despair is reminiscent of the sacrificial virgin in The Rehearsal's Ballets Russes predecessor, though the circumstances surrounding her death are quite different.

Promethean Fire and The Uncommitted show a different side of Taylor. Less humorous and narrative, these two pieces give us a sample of Taylor's pure dance works. They do not rely on subversive or humorous content, but rather on the honest form of beauty that stems from expertly planned and controlled movement.

The Uncommitted began with a number of solos interspersed with large ensemble movements, and slowly led into duets, trios and smaller group dances. An aggressive tone is notable in this work. The exact nature of this piece is unclear, leaving the viewer to make his or her own decisions about Taylor's intentions. I enjoyed the lyricism of Uncommitted after watching Sacre, but was distracted by the costumes, which were really unflattering.

Promethean Fire, set to some beautiful music by Bach, was lovely. Here, Taylor played with the classical Petipa formula and adapted it to his own distinctly modern needs. You see intricate tableaus, complicated daisy chains, even a pas de deux! He uses what has worked for over a century and gives it a modern dance makeover. It works well. The piece is dynamic and captivating. The program as a whole is extremely physically demanding of the company, all of whom appear in each piece, so ending with a highly charged work like Fire definitely shows the strength of Taylor's dancers.

The main issue I have with the company is primarily with the men. I've been called a bunhead before, and I'll accept that title. What I have to say next might solidify that title forevermore, but I will continue nonetheless. Would it really kill these modern dancers to think a little more about lines? I totally understand that the kind of raw athleticism these dancers embody can and should sometimes take precedence over the classical aesthetics of a pointed foot and a straight leg. But with the caliber of professional dance as high as it is today, why not strive for both? This is the second time I've seen the Taylor Company in the past month, and each time I've been distracted by what I view as a disregard for unity and mindfulness within the body. If everyone is supposed to be performing the same movement, why is it suddenly justifiable for each dancer to look different performing that movement? Both Uncommitted and Fire were full of jetes, or leaps, to the layman. In both pieces, these leaps just looked sloppy; arms thrown about, sickled and unpointed feet. It looked unprofessional. While I applaud the power and vigor the Taylor dancers bring to the stage, I would love to see a little more attention to detail.

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