Paul Taylor Dance
Company
Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts Theater, San Francisco
April 30th,
2017
Sunday afternoon at YBCA
Theater saw the final dance of San Francisco Performances’ 2016-2017 season.
This honor was held by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, a frequent returnee to
and favorite of the longtime Bay Area presenter. Program C was a throwback to
Taylor’s choreography from decades past with a triple bill of Danbury Mix (1988), Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala (1986) and Esplanade
(1975).
I really enjoy the
classic American modern dance style, and with the exception of a few companies,
you don’t see it that much anymore. There’s a purity and unfetteredness to the
form that is still both creative and relevant today. Flexed hands, sculptural
pictures and Graham temps leveé; emotionally charged themes - all so clear and
defined. Choreographically, Program C’s opener, Danbury Mix, was very reflective of this genre’s clarity, though the
piece’s narrative was less so. The cast, costumed in black, began in a cluster
upstage left. Quickly a Miss Liberty character (beautifully danced by Laura
Halzack) emerged through the group. Ominous and foreboding music framed the
scene, the group moving along the diagonal and then to the center of the space.
Over the work’s twenty-four minutes, you could tell that there was a strong
narrative at play – maybe not a linear story, but certainly the dance was about
something or reflecting something. The question was what? Mostly, I saw an
examination of extremes, that between chaos and control. Carefully controlled
attitudes and arabesques, stylized walking and relevé fouettés in parallel
countered with frenetic pulsating and animalistic crawling. Purposeful onstage
panic would abruptly give way to a sudden calm and tranquility. And then the
energy would transform again, into jubilant, patriotic-inspired phrase
material; sometimes things got even a little campy. It just seemed like there
was more going on than just a statement on chaos and control in Danbury Mix’s narrative, but it didn’t
read as clearly as did the choreographic form.
Speaking of camp, Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala brought a hearty
dose to the stage – a hilarious ensemble work for twelve, six women and six
men. Short white columns were arranged in the space. In mini white tunics,
unitards with tufted hair, gold leaf headband crowns and fake beards, the men
looked like satirical living statues as they posed dramatically around the
stage. The women, in Isadora-inspired white tunics underwent a similar journey
in this light, comical fare. Exaggerated and melodramatic movements shone, like
the grand promenade and the acrobatic parallel sissones in plié. Tap,
Charleston and tango vocabulary even made an appearance toward the end of the
piece. A brilliant offering that was part sketch comedy, part physical theater
and all modern dance, Ab Ovo Usque Ad
Mala was a delight and the audience absolutely loved it.
And then, it was time
for the piece I had come specifically to see, the sole reason why I had chosen
this program of the three mixed repertory bills that the company had brought
this year to San Francisco Performances. A masterwork. An iconic dance. Esplanade. Accumulation is the star of
the first chapter of this thirty-minute work. It opens with simple, everyday
walking, and then moves to include directional shifts, grapevines and running.
Straight lines pivot to become diagonal; speed and dynamics range from calm to
full throttle. Single file similarly morphs into weaving and circular
formations. All the while, an innocent, unpretentious joy of movement
encompasses the stage. Esplanade’s
second section holds a more serious tonal quality with the focus being on the
gaze, the perspective and the line of view. The addition of the ninth cast
member for only this segment is again curious, but perhaps it’s one of those
striking puzzles better left unsolved. Ebullience returns in the final part of
the dance – spinning, leaping, jumping, rolling, sliding and boureéing
backwards in parallel as fast as humanly possible.
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