Company B

The Paul Taylor Dance Company accompanied by the Duchess at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival on Friday.

With the Duchess performing songs of the Andrews Sisters, the Paul Taylor Dance Company put on “Company B,” a choreography set in the 1940s swing era as the United States emerged from the Great Depression and drawn into World War II.

Comprised of ten parts, each section of “Company B” tells a different story of the nation. Starting with youths jubilantly dancing the lindy hop, jitterbug, and polkas… we were then treated to hit songs of the era (“Tico Tico” and “Rum and Coca-Cola”)… before the storyline moved onto young lovers separated by war (“I Can Dream, Can’t I?”) and the heartbreak of losing a loved one (“There Will Never Be Another You”). As we watched Heather McGinley mourn on stage, we couldn’t help but feel for what the 1940s generation had gone through in a turbulent era.

“Company B – Bei Mir Bist du Schön”
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Dancers: Robert Kleinedorst, James Samson, Parisa Khobdeh, Sean Mahoney, Eran Bugge, Francisco Graciano, Laura Halzack, Michael Apuzzo, Michael Novak, Heather McGinley, George Smallwood, Christina Lynch Markham, Madelyn Ho, Kristin Draucker
Photography: Jason Chuang

Airs

The Paul Taylor Dance Company performed at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival on Friday.

“Airs” is a happy, dynamic, and energetic choreography filled with jumps, lifts, and fluid movements meant to represent the air and water. Paul Taylor paints the stage with his dancers as gusts of wind, eddies in the river, clouds in the air. Everything is smooth and ever changing — like spending a day out in the nature, or like nature itself.

“Airs”
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Dancers: Michael Trusnovec, Robert Kleinendorst, George Smallwood, Michelle Fleet, Eran Bugge, Laura Halzack, Parisa Khobdeh
Photography: Jason Chuang