PAUL TAYLOR DANCE: Opening Night

Review by Celia Ipiotis

The Paul Taylor Dance Company company joyously returned to the David H, Koch Theater for a three week season. Opening night sandwiched Hope Boykin’s premiere How Love Sounds between two Taylor classics Concertiana choreographed in 2016 (his last major work before passing) and the 1999  Cascade.

Built on a full court of dancers, Concertina reads like a compendium of Taylor’s vocabulary and aesthetic leanings. Watery blue unitards by frequent creative conspirator William Ivey Long, Taylor harnesses the image of a mass migration forming straight lines and geometric forms. Blocks of dancers travel from one side to the other breaking off into Tayloresque rolls on the floor, arms swinging up, into bounding sideways leaps morphing into athletic duets where women are grabbed at the waist and hoisted onto a hip.

A line of dancers snakes across the back in silhouette framing breakaway solos and duets. Nonstop dance fills the stage with Taylor’s singular aesthetic interiorizing all of his influences from American social dances to Graham, Balanchine and Robbins.

The centerpiece, Hope Boykin’s How Love Sounds gathers the company in romantic slow dancing until breaking out into high kicking slides and freestyle dancing. Wearing bright colored outfits, the soundtrack veers from Dvorak to Stevie Wonder.

Sonic flips and movement surges demonstrate Boykin’s ability to craft both modern dance and ballet sequences accented by a funky aside. Nice as it is to hear the choreographer’s actual voice, a recording of Boykin musing on life interrupted the flow. In the end, the dancers channel their inner Donna Summers.

Taylor’s zest for dance gleems in Cascade, the nearly full company work that underscores the Taylor dancers’ brilliance as athletes of the Gods. First of all, the aerobic demands of Cascade might wear out a soccer player let alone a dancer. 

Rhapsodically flowing, the utter elegance and symmetry of Cascade dances over Bach’s six part suite. The gold backdrop by Santo Loquasto shimmers in Jennifer Tipton’s splendid lighting setting off the Renaissance looking outfits: men’s stringed vests pair with women’s gossamer black and gold skirts summoning a court masque.

A male quintet shows off the male dance force, allowing them to playfully but willfully demonstrate their power and flexibility. Arms splayed sideways set off the aerodynamic flow of dancers  criss-crossing, and lifting off sideways. Bent kneed side leaps sweep into turns that coil down and spring back up while duets pop against a fringe of dancers exiting and entering. The beauty of Cascade lies in its eloquence and sheer love of dance.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis