PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY

the company

Eran Bugge, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh

Christina Markham, Heather McGinley, Laura Halzack

Jamie Rae Walker, Aileen Roehl

Michael Apuzzo, Francisco Graciano, Robert Kleinendorst

Sean Mahoney, Micheal Novak, James Samson

George Smallwood, Michael Trusnovec

artistic director Paul Taylor

répétiteur Bettie de Jong

principal lighting designer Jennifer Tipton

set & costume main designer Santo Loquasto

executive director John Tomlinson

company manager Holden Kellerhals

director of touring engagements Timothy Robinson

production director Steven Carlino

lighting supervisor Micheal Dostal

Clarion Overmoyer tailoring supervisor

program of friday July 11

AIRS

music Georg Friedrich Händel

From the Concerti Grossi, Op. 3 nos. 2, 3, 4° & 4b, 6

and from Alcina, Ariodante, Berenice and Salomon

choreography Paul Taylor

scenes and costumes Gene Moore

lights Jennifer Tipton

(first performance 1978)

duration: 25 minutes

_Airs _is a'opera of lyrical beauty and breathtaking musicality. A dance of love and joy. A dance of music and silence. The dancers move as one with the air they breathe, a perfect harmony of dance and music.

AMERICAN DREAMER

music pieces by Stephen Foster

sung from Thomas Hampson

choreography Paul Taylor

scenes and costumes Santo Loquasto

lights Jennifer Tipton

(first performance 2013)

duration: 21 minutes

The dancers evoke 19th-century America with a bucolic dance of courtship and humor. The score is composed from folk songs that were elevated to anthems by the first great national composer, Stephen Foster (1826-1864), performed from Thomas Hampson.

PIAZZOLLA CALDERA

music Astor Piazzolla and Jerzy Peterburshsky

choreography Paul Taylor

scenes and costumes Santo Loquasto

lights Jennifer Tipton

(first performance 1997)

duration: 22 minutes

Piazzola Caldera is Paul Taylor's look at the heart of tango. This work does not aspire to dance the typical steps of the tango, but to denude the essence of energy and feeling that gave birth to this dance. Men and women exist to create and fulfill the desires and fantasies of others while defending their territory as sexual predators.

program for saturday, july 12

MERCURIC TIDINGS

music Franz Schubert, Symphonies No. 1 and 2

choreography Paul Taylor

Gene Moore costumes

lights Jennifer Tipton

(first performance 1982)

duration: 25 minutes

_Mercuric Tidings _is a dance that creates visual music. The essence of Schubert's complex masterpiece is reflected on stage: the dancers run through it, creating what one critic called "organized chaos." The blinding speed, almost close to collision, and the geometric pattern that Mercuric Tidings presupposes, leave the audience breathless.

DUST

music Francis Poulenc Concert Champêtre

choreography Paul Taylor

Gene Moore sets and costumes

lights Jennifer Tipton

(first performance 1977)

duration: 26 munits

"The choreography Dust is created in 1977, and is a celebration of the tortured and damaged body. Paul Taylor described it in Newsweek in 1991 as 'an ode to that stricken humanity from afflictions.'

Dust is one of Taylor's many bizarre and exquisitely creepy performances, in which a very mysterious and somewhat sinister situation is presented. The choreographer himself claims the audience's complicity: one gets the distinct feeling that one should not have to witness to all this, yet one cannot to resist. In one scene in Dust, a dancer lying on the floor is hung from a rope pulled by the others, an act reminiscent of a secret ritual. The music, Francis Poulenc's Concert champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra, is at once serious and mocking, sometimes even irreverent. Taylor's choreography and the original costumes designed from Gene Moore reflect these passing moods with extraordinary sensitivity. The dancers, with their youthful and charismatic temperaments, were able to enhance every single, impetuous movement."

(Allan Ulrich, Dance Review)

PIAZZOLLA CALDERA

music Astor Piazzolla and Jerzy Peterburshsky

choreography** Paul Taylor**

scenes and costumes Santo Loquasto

lights Jennifer Tipton

(first performance 1997)

duration: 22 minutes

_Piazzola Caldera _is Paul Taylor's look at the heart of tango. This work does not aspire to dance the typical steps of the tango, but to denude the essence of energy and feeling that gave birth to this dance. Men and women exist to create and fulfill the desires and fantasies of others while defending their territory as sexual predators.

In the beginning was Martha Graham, who changed the face of dance and discovered a new world, followed from by Merce Cunningham, who stripped away the outer forms to penetrate the heart of movement, and finally there is Paul Taylor, who makes the sunshine penetrate the inside of dance

The Paul Taylor Dance Company will dance at Teatro Romano in Spoleto as part of its "2014 Diamond Anniversary Tour," the 60th anniversary season celebrating the masterpieces created from Paul Taylor over six decades from 1954 to the present.

from many considered the greatest living American choreographer, Paul Taylor is the founder and dominant icon of American modern dance, and his ideas have continued to influence the art of the 21st century. During his 60 years in the business, Paul Taylor has created more than 140 choreographies, including those scheduled for the two evenings of the Festival. to 83 years old, Paul Taylor continues to to devise and produce new works.