CELEBRATING 60 YEARS
direzione artistica Paul Taylor
The Diamond Anniversary Tour is made possible with the valuable support of: MetLife Foundation official sponsor Paul Taylor Dance Company. The 2014 season is made possible with support from SHS Foundation and the Board of Trustees and Friends of the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts with support from Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
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 the Teatro Romano of 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.
With his 140 creations since 1954, when the Paul Taylor Dance Company was founded, Paul Taylor is the greatest living pioneer of American modern dance. Through his creations Paul Taylor continues to to offer compelling frescoes of the complexities of everyday life and society's thorniest problems.
For 20 years a virtuoso dancer, Paul Taylor turned exclusively to choreography in 1974; the creation that followed, Esplanade, became from immediately a classic. His creations are performed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Taylor 2 and from numerous companies from all over the world.
A recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor (a prestigious award given annually to outstanding members of the performing arts who have made significant contributions to American culture), he is the star of the Oscar-nominated documentary film Dancemaker, as well as the author of a successful autobiography_ Private Domain_.
The company is recognized to worldwide as excellence in modern dance. Since its founding in 1954, Paul Taylor has choreographed some 140 works many of which have become true icons and celebrated as such to internationally. The company has performed in some 64 countries and more than 524 cities. Paul Taylor continues to ceaselessly creating at least 2 choreographies a year for his company of from 16 dancers. His autobiography, Private Domain, was published in 1987, and the company was featured in the 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary film Dancemaker. In 2013 Paul Taylor published the book Facts and Fancies a collection of mostly entertaining essays. He has won major awards, including two of the nation's top arts honors: the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts.