Motion Emotion
The world-renowned Paul Taylor Dance Company will open the Festival Dance & Performing Arts’ 15th season in Pullman next Thursday.
The Taylor company, acclaimed by The New York Times as “one of the most exciting, innovative and delightful dance companies in the world,” is celebrating its 50th year with a tour that will visit all 50 states.
Taylor and his New York-based company have been a dominant force in dance for five decades, winning accolades for a style that combines athleticism, humor and passion.
What makes Taylor’s choreography so unique is that he successfully bridges – as no other choreographer has – the abyss between modern dance and ballet. He’s the modern dance luminary who also choreographs for the world’s internationally acclaimed ballet companies, drawing on both classical and pop traditions.
Thursday’s performance will include “Promethean Fire” from the Taylor repertory and his recently choreographed “Dante Variations,” as well as other works.
“Promethean Fire” is widely viewed as Taylor’s chilling response to the cataclysmic events of Sept. 11, 2001. With dancers costumed in black velvet unitards laced with glittering gold threads, set to music by Bach, the piece is filled with an absolute sense of inevitability.
London-based critic Allen Robertson wrote, “Each radiant moment shines with perfect simplicity and immediacy.”
The “Dante Variations” is based on Dante’s 11th-century literary masterpiece, “The Divine Comedy,” where the punishments in hell and purgatory are the result of each individual’s pride and actions.
For dance artists, among the most horrible punishments would be impeded movement. This is literally the case in this dance where strips of white cloth tie hands or legs together. Heaps of dancers arranged in postures of resignation and despair put up a valiant, but futile struggle to free themselves from the inevitable result of their pride.
Like music, Taylor’s choreography seeks to convey deep emotional truths that words cannot render. “Ribald, refined, lyrical, dramatic, grotesque, or pure,” said The New York Times, “his dances are deeply musical in their poles of sophistication and accessibility.”
The 74-year-old Taylor is one of the world’s most venerated choreographers. He is the recipient of more than 40 awards for artistic excellence including French knighthood and three Guggenheim Fellowships.
His lifetime achievement awards include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Kennedy Center Honors “for enhancing the lives of people around the world and enriching the culture of our nation.”
In a recent interview with California’s Contra Costa Times newspaper, Taylor was modest about his eminence in the international dance community.
“I knew if I just lived long enough, all my competitors would die off,” he said with a laugh. “But now, all my young competition is breathing down my neck!”