Above: Michael Trusnovec and ensemble in Paul Taylor's Brandenburgs; photo by Paul B Goode
Saturday evening March 21st, 2015 - This evening, the programme at Paul Taylor Dance Company's Lincoln Center season featured Taylor's latest creation, Death and The Damsel, book-ended by two of his celebrated works from the 1980s: Sunset and Brandenburgs.
The simple but evocative Alex Katz set design for Sunset shows a flat aquamarine sky with suggestions of tree limbs in black. Along one side of the stage is an iron fence, which might also be a ballet barre. A group of soldiers in khakis and red berets are lounging and casually dancing. We know not what country they serve; they are simply universal soldiers.
Above: Robert Kleinendorst and Michael Trusnovec in Sunset; photo by Paul B Goode
Unlike Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free, to which it is sometimes compared, Sunset is mostly devoid of humor or playfulness. Perhaps Taylor's soldiers are part of an occupying force. When three white-clad girls appear, there are flirtations, tensions, and hopes. But Sunset retains throughout an under-current of sadness, fed by the wistful lyricism of the Edward Elgar score.
Above: Aileen Roehl and the ensemble in Sunset; photo by Paul B Goode
Passing playfulness - with four lovely ladies Aileen Roehl, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, and Eran Bugge - gives way to the sounds of birdcalls as dusk approaches. The tone becomes more pensive. In a sustained passage with the men, Ms. Bugge seems angelic, the white purity of her dress matching the purity of her dancing. The men then march off: to guard duty? To battle? Or to an unknown fate.
Paul Taylor's newest work, Death and the Damsel, is set to Bohuslav Martinů's Sonata #2, beautifully played live from the pit by Myron Lutzke (cello) and Margaret Kampmeier (piano). Massive backdrops of Gotham cityscapes (designed by Santo Loquasto) loom over the action; especially marvelous is Loquasto's view of the Chrysler Building.
Jamie Rae Walker awakens from sleep in her tiny loft-room. In her introductory solo, Ms. Walker does everything from fouetté turns to cartwheels, expressing her innocence and her joy at living in the most exciting city on Earth. Suddenly her peace of mind is disturbed by the entrance of vampiric creatures dressed in black leather with Goth hairdos and makeup.
The action suddenly shifts to a dance club where Ms. Walker is heartlessly gang-raped. In a duet which combines terror and deadly allure, the girl is partnered by the glowingly sinister Michael Trusnovec. Later, she tries to fend off the gorgeously evil and predatory Laura Halzack. The ballet ends with Ms. Walker apparently being devoured by her attackers (though the people seated behind us were saying the ending was somewhat different at an earlier performance they had seen). Whether the scenario represents the damsel's nightmare or her secret fantasy we cannot guess; but the work did offer a big opportunity for Ms. Walker and she made the most of it.
Above: the Taylor men in Brandenburgs; photo by Paul B Goode
Paul Taylor's 1988 abstract Bach ballet Brandenburgs brought the evening to a marvelous close. Wearing Santo Loquasto's rich forest-green velvety costumes, the men perform stylized leaps and semaphoric gestures that made me think of some of Martha Graham's unison passages. Three beauties appear - Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, and Eran Bugge - each dancing a solo enmeshed with the men: each woman radiant and creating her own perfumed atmosphere. In an adagio solo demanding peerless physical control and expressiveness, Michael Trusnovec was simply magnificent. Tonight's Brandenburgs showed Taylor's choreography and his thrillingly talented dancers at their very finest.
Above: Parisa Khobdeh and the ensemble in Brandenburgs; photo by Paul B Goode
I loved running into Annmaria Mazzini and John Eirich tonight.