After seven years, the Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to the Hop with three performances. The best of modern dance, Paul Taylors Company is a must-see.
Born in Pennsylvania, Paul Taylor studied painting at Syracuse University before entering the dance world. He danced with the prestigious Martha Graham Dance Company from 1955 until 1962, made frequent guest appearances with the New York City Ballet in 1959, and formed his own company in 1958.
"The greatest living choreographer" according to Time magazine, Taylor has received over forty awards for his work. These awards include three Guggenheim Fellowships, six honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for lifetime achievement, and the New York City Mayors Award of Honor for Art and Culture.
He received an Emmy Award in 1992 for "Speaking in Tongues," the 1992 Kennedy Center Honors "for enhancing the lives of people around the world and enriching the culture of the nation," and a National Medal of Arts from President Clinton in 1993.
Taylors works have been performed by over seventy-five dance companies worldwide, including American Ballet theater, Ballet Rambert, Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, English National Ballet, Guangdong Modern Dance Company of Cina, Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Teatro all Scala of Milan.
"Private Domain," Taylors autobiography, was nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as the most distinguished biography of 1987.
Now in its forty-second year, the Company consists of sixteen dancers, including Dartmouth graduate Andrew Asnes l87.
The ensemble performs the works of Paul Taylor and other renowned choreographers, such as Jerome Robbins. This weekends performances will include Taylors "Cascade," "Le Sacre du Printemps," and "Piazzolla Caldera."
Piazzolla Caldera, which first premiered in 1997, received rave reviews by critics across the world. A modern dance interpretation of the tango, this piece has been hailed for its ingenuity. Dance critic for the New York Times Jennifer Dunning writes of "Piazzolla," "the curtain rises on a stylized version of the requisite red-and-black tango setting Arms and legs wrap around partners torsos, and legs thrust suggestively between other legs
"Piazzolla Caldera" is certainly a distillation of the tango, but the piece also plays with the very nature of modern dance Taylor explores the way dancers may enter from and disappear into the wings and how entrances and exits can define and move a work along."
This piece is also an important one of Taylors because it represents one of his first explorations of same-sex relationships. Dunning writes, "Taylor has seldom addressed same-sex relationships in his dances. An initially teasing dance for Thomas Patrick and Richard Chen See, a duet whose tenderness is made even more poignant by its lack of sentimentality in "Piazzolla Caldera."
The Paul Taylor Dance Company tours regularly around the country and will stop in Hanover this weekend to perform at the Hop. Performances will be held at the Moore Theater tomorrow at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.
