PAUL TAYLOR: Battle & Sperling

The Paul Taylor Dance Company, at the Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater offered a program that spans eras, aesthetics, and intentions.

The evening opens with Vive La Loïe, Jody Sperling’s homage to Loïe Fuller, a work that delivers visual softness and decorative grace but little beneath the surface. Robert Battle’s company premeire, Takademe, follows a brisk and razor-sharp solo that feels almost jarringly at odds with what comes before it.

Lauren Lovette’s Solitaire delivers a polished, neatly crafted interlude, though it struggles to leave a lasting impression. The night closes with Paul Taylor’s Company B, a buoyant portrait of 1940’s Americana steeped in the era’s heteronormativity.

Beginning with Jody Sperling’s Vive La Loïe, the lights by David Ferri rise, and a woman dressed in a white flowing garment stands alone on stage surrounded by darkness. She extends her wing-like arms creating beautiful imagery as she moves from one position to the next. The lights change the color of the dress from purples to blues further adding to its spectacle. While the piece was pleasant on the eyes, it ultimately felt empty of content.

Takademe, is a reminder to Battle of his animated beginnings as a dancemaker. The piece picks up the energy of the program showcasing a sense of humor and quick deconstructed Kathak dance rhythms. Dressed in red, Devon Louis The dancer performs sharp geometric shapes and dynamic jumps.

On paper, Lauren Lovette’s Solitaire explores isolation then transformation. The note: “A single gem set alone,” appears under the title in the program. However, for a piece exploring a darker and relatable facet of the human experience I expected the dancing to follow suit with somber or even more grotesque-like movements. But, the piece was visually graceful and clean, lacking the nuances it describes on paper. The dancers make sustained strong movements, extending both their arms and legs.

The final piece of the night, Paul Taylor’s Company B takes us to post depression America featuring iconic dance moves and music of the period like the Jitterbug and the“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B).” We watch a community happily celebrating begin to darken as men leave their women to go to war.

In one passage, a woman alone reaches to the ceiling longingly hoping for her husband’s return. Today the dance does a great job of taking us back to the 40s, but the lingering bleakness it once expressed wasn’t as apparent by today’s Taylor Company.

Though each piece is accomplished on its own terms, together they form a lineup stylistically scattered, causing the program to feel more random than expansive.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Frankie Lehrer