PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY.PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY Paul Taylor Dance Company, is a contemporary dance company, formed by Paul Taylor, an American choreographers of the 20th century. One of the early touring companies of American modern dance, the Company has "performed in more than 500 cities in 62 countries"[1] J.F. KENNEDY CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. FEBRUARY 18-20, 1999 Paul Taylor has often dipped into popular culture and come up with incisive American portraits ranging from the acid (Big Bertha) to the poignant (Company B). His new work, Oh, You Kid!, is a minor variant of this theme; although there are some fine, wacky moments and Taylor's craft is always evident, the dance as a whole is uneven. The piece is rooted, although not very deeply, in nostalgia. The dancers (clad in black-and-white period bathing costumes by Santo Loquasto) seem at times to be the performers, at times the audience, in an end-of-pier romp to various early-twentieth-century rags, played in D.C. by the Paragon Ragtime ragtime: see jazz. ragtime U.S. popular music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries distinguished by its heavily syncopated rhythm. Ragtime found its characteristic expression in formally structured piano compositions, the accented left-hand Orchestra. There's a truly inspired dance for Lisa Viola as an inept contortionist, a rubber-limbed Chosen Maiden forced by an unseen dictator-manager to keep going despite some daffy mishaps. A sweet duet "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland dream·land n. 1. An ideal or imaginary land. 2. A state of sleep. Noun 1. dreamland - a pleasing country existing only in dreams or imagination dreamworld, never-never land " for Silvia Nevjinsky and Andrew Asnes looks like a deconstruction of the pas de deux pas de deux (French; “step for two”) Dance for two performers. A characteristic part of classical ballet, it includes an adagio, or slow dance, by the ballerina and her partner; solo variations by the male dancer and then the ballerina; and a coda, or from Bournonville's Kermesse in Bruges; a march for the company to a ragtime version of the "The Star-Spangled Banner" however, seems simply childish. The most complex section is a deftly timed four-ring circus of demented comic-book and movie serial characters that reworks two of Taylor's favorite themes: infanticide infanticide (ĭnfăn`təsīd) [Lat.,=child murder], the putting to death of the newborn with the consent of the parent, family, or community. Infanticide often occurs among peoples whose food supply is insecure (e.g. and damsel-jacking. The most controversial part (it did not go down well in D.C.) is a high-kicking line dance for five dancers wearing Ku Klux Klan Ku Klux Klan (k  ' klŭks klăn), designation mainly given to two distinct secret societies that played a part in American history, although other less important groups have also used hoods. It's historically accurate--this would have seemed entertaining to white audiences at the time--and the five do goose-step off at the end, hinting that something evil shown as harmless can become more evil still; but that subtlety will be lost on most audiences. And besides, the dance itself isn't very funny. What's really missing in Oh, You Kid! is a sense of confident, pre-World War I innocence that would make the piece come alive. In Company B the dancers seemed tossed out of a time machine; here, they're just dancers. The company was in fine shape. Also on the program were Taylor's chic and quietly dazzling Piazzolla Caldera caldera: see crater. caldera Large, bowl-shaped volcanic depression that forms when the top of a volcanic cone collapses into the space left after magma is ejected during a violent volcanic eruption. The term is Spanish for “caldron. (1997) and Cloven clo·ven v. A past participle of cleave1. adj. Split; divided. cloven Verb a past participle of cleave1 Adjective split or divided Kingdom (1976), his elegantly funny look at the animal impulses that lurk behind human social behavior. The dancing in Kingdom--juicy, natural, exciting--was the first I've seen in ages that didn't make me long for the work's first cast. The dancers looked as though the piece had been made on them--no nostalgia required. |
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