Tag: Michael Novak

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Roses

A fabulous Sunday afternoon with Paul Taylor American Modern Dance and the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the Lincoln Center.

I loved “Roses” and enjoyed seeing “Mercuric Tidings” again. The program also featured a new contemporary work, much darker in theme, titled “Half Life.”

Roses is so gooooorgeous! Thanks, Madelyn, for the recommendation. The piece featured six couples playfully dancing with each other, and was filled unique moments that were equally fun to watch as they were (as I imagine in my mind) equally fun to dance.

I love the duet between Madelyn Ho and Michael Novak and the short duet between Kristin Draucker and Michael Apuzzo that followed, especially when the couples leaped through and flipped around each other.

I love how Madelyn and Eran Bugge flew around their respective Michaels.

I also love how Heather McGinley and Eran connected with Sean Mahoney and Michael Trusnovec including (this may sound completely crazy) the brief moments when Heather and Eran created a bubble with their two arms and Sean and Michael popped the bubbles. Such small gestures could say so much when beautifully executed.

Throughout the choreography, the five couples, dressed in grey and black, took turns to dance. As they finally came to a stop, I remembered saying to myself: Oh, this piece is so lovely. Please don’t let it end!!!

Right at that moment, as if on cue, Eran and Michael, dressed in all white, came dashing onto stage and put on a grand finale. Well done. What a way to build up and finish the piece.

Looking forward to tonight’s American Modern Icons program featuring Trisha Brown, Isadora Duncan, and Paul Taylor’s own “Esplanade”!

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Cloven Kingdom

Paul Taylor American Modern Dance: Another wondeful night at the Lincoln Center, plus a backstage tour with Michael Novak.

Tonight’s program opened with the 1960s-themed “Changes” featuring dancers all dressed in hippies fashion. Memorable moments included…

Christina Lynch Markham‘s solo to California Earthquake.

The unusual but fascinating movement quality that combined modern dance, 60s dancing, and the “relaxed feel” that came from having a little too much grass. Modern dance is no cake walk, but I suspect the “relaxed look” is even harder to dance… especially while sober and under the Lincoln Center’s stage lighting???

And, of course, the dancing bear by James Samson and Michael Apuzzo. The father-son moment in the dancing bear was wonderful, but I’m too young to get the reference. Why is there a dancing bear? How is the bear connected to the 1960s?

“Continuum” is full of contrasts… Between the uplifting Madelyn Ho in red, Heather McGinley in pink, and the rest of the company fading quickly into grey. Between the graceful goddess-like Laura Halzack and the tormented Lee Duveneck who picked himself up only to fall, drop, crash into the ground over and over again.

In “Cloven Kingdom,” the dancers portrayed the dual roles of being members of the high society while clinging onto the inner animals inside each one of them. It was great to see this choreography in its full glory (with the full set of costumes, stage lightning, and live music) tonight vs. the earlier studio preview.

This choreography had the dance historian in me thinking…

Back in the 1910s, Vernon and Irene Castle brought couple dancing to upper middle class Americans. Elegent and fashionable, the Castles made social dancing such as the Tango, Foxtrot, Hesitation Waltz, Maxixe not only acceptable but respectable by the high society.

However, it’s also during the 1910s, that animal dances such as the Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot, Crab Walk, Duck Waddle, Kangaroo Hop swept across America in one of the biggest dance craze in US history.

Could “Cloven Kingdom” have any relation to the defining years in American social dance leading up to 1914? (Vernon Castle was killed in WWI.)

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Eventide

Paul Taylor Dance Company: Absolutely Wonderful performance tonight on my first of five (or more!) visits to their season at the Lincoln Center.

Absolute looooovoed “Eventide”!!! The choreography tells the stories of five couples.

I love the emotions and the human experience in the stories. The beautiful bond between Jamie Rae Walker and Sean Mahoney in “Christmas Dance.” The exuberant, affectionate, honeymoon-like “Moto Perpetuo” filled with dynamic movements between Heather McGinley and Michael Novak. The elusive love, the missed connection between Eran Bugge and Robert Kleinendorst. The care for each other, but also the heavy weight in the relationship between Parisa Khobdeh and Michael Trusnovec.

I also love the movements, which included numerous steps from historical and social dancing (e.g., polka mazurka!), elegantly choreographed into the narratives, and beautifully executed on stage.

As a dance photographer, I thought the lines in Eventide were goooorgeous. The lifts, dips, arm and leg extensions, couples coming together, spinning around each other, the facial expressions, the connections, the patterns created by five couples. The choreography is filled with moments after moments that would make a stunning photo.

Closing the night, “Mercuric Tidings” was powerful, energetic, filled with amazing leaps and turns. Its plotless “music visualization” was a huge contrast to Eventide that preceded it.

Opening the night, “Set and Reset” by the Trisha Brown Dance Company was lovely in its opening scene. I loved how fluid the piece felt. The dancers moved freely across the stage, gently connected as they passed each other, spun around each other, and from time to time, effortlessly lifted each other into the air. The choreography became somewhat repetitive in the second half though, and I never quite got the connection between the movements and the four overhead video projections.

Overall though, it was a wonderful program. Can’t wait to go back again tomorrow for the TaylorNext Night!

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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