Haglund's Heel

PTDC – 1962 anew

Paul Taylor Dance Company opened its inaugural season at Lincoln Center last night with a 50th anniversary performance of Paul Taylor's 1962 creation Auerole!  Every seat in the house cost $3.50 which was the top ticket price back in 1962.

A few of us remember 1962.  The time was all about dance: The Twist, The Peppermint Twist, The Watusi, The Mashed Potato, The Locomotion.  Those were the good old days when The Duke of Earl Shot Liberty Valance and Sealed It With A Kiss to Johnny Angel down in Palisades Park where The Stripper named Ramblin' Rose, who was actually Bobby's Girl, Limbo Rocked with her Good Luck Charms, Shiela and Sherry, that is, Sheh-eh-ry, and the Soldier Boy named Norman was A Rebel who Just because he doesn't do what everybody else does, that's no reason why we can't share love.  Haglund remembers it well.  He was ten.

The good old days of dance were bettered last night.  The current Taylor dancers were like a gleaming, perfectly calibrated, modern fuel injected engine that had been inserted into the classic choreographic body.  They maneuvered the swerves, swivels, loops, parallel cabrioles, and the parallel skiiing glissades with a humming energy that made Auerole a pure joy to watch.

Later they shifted into a piston-pumping 5th gear performance of Taylor's glorious Brandenburgs to Bach's concertos with the brilliant Michael Trusnovec leading the way and Eran Bugge not far behind.  It was one of those performances where you could feel the energy building in the audience as it watched the intricate patterns of movement develop, accelerate, and redesign themselves.  Brandenburgs looked as much at home on the stage in the House of Balanchine as Concerto Barocco does.  If the hints of possible PTDC/NYCB collaborative programing are for real, a great opening program would be Brandenburgs and Barocco together.

The evening's program also included the comedic Troilus and Cressida (reduced) with Robert Kleinendorst as the King of Troy who frequently and hilariously had trouble keeping his purple sweatpants up during his PdD with Jamie Rae Walker's amorous Cressida.  (LOL, it brought back Lincoln Center memories of a certain Romeo's total humiliation of ABT in 1988.)

The final dance on the program was Piazzolla Caldera, a piece of pure genius which Taylor made in 1997.  Santo Loquasto's designs included bustiers for the women and lamps that hung from the ceiling and swayed in their own choreography.  All of the dancers sizzled in the tango-inspired moves.  Such a delicious piece to end the evening.

The only complaint about the evening might be with the overall lighting of the stage.  It didn't seem that the theater's lighting technical wizardry was being used, and sometimes things looked a little under-lighted.  Also, it was weird having the house lights around the rings completely darkened instead of dimmed. 

The theater was packed to the very back of the 4th Ring with a crowd that seemed evenly mixed among young, middle aged, and seniors, but it wasn't the basic crowd that you usually see at NYCB performances.  Haglund overheard a woman remark, "I don't think that I've ever been in this theater."  So it seems that while PTDC will attract new audiences to its performances by moving to Lincoln Center, the Center itself will enjoy new patronage from having PTDC as a resident.  All good.

What a great evening.  Here's a hot tangerine tango Pump Bump Award for the Paul Taylor Dance Company for its awesome inaugural performance at Lincoln Center!

PTDC Special Performance $3.50

Good work, Everyone.  Way to go - bring those servers down at the Koch Theater. 

Suggestion:    LOG IN BEFORE looking for tickets or you'll never make it through check-out in time.

Web site

212-496-0600

Box office - fughettaboudit - there's a line of 200 people at the moment.

On Haglund's Calendar - Stop the insanity!

Can't wait for NYCB to open the winter season on Tuesday, January 17th with Bouder & Veyette in Tchai Pas and R. Fairchild and Peck in Who Cares?  There are lots of great performances on the schedule, but Haglund's attendance totally depends on the behavior of NYCB Management toward the 4th Ring Society members - as we shall forever be known.

February 4th, Old Hag is trucking down to Washington, D.C. for the magnificent Part/Gomes/Abrera evening performance of ABT's La Bayadere. 

March 14th officially opens the Paul Taylor Dance Company's inaugural Lincoln Center Season of 20 performances, but of course, EVERYONE will be at the special just-added March 13th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION of Aureole.  Tickets for $3.50 (no service fee) go on sale tomorrow Monday at 10:00 a.m. for that special performance.

March 25th will mark the historic debuts of Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews in ABT's Giselle.  So it's in Chicago.  So what.  Haglund will be there, and he's not coming alone.  After yanking away ABT's 2011 Golden Circle donation due to the company's irresponsible use of guest artists instead of its own dancers, it appears that the remote possibility for any 2012 donation will be further reduced every time Haglund has to travel to another city to see what he should be able to see on the home stage. 

Can't wait to see what April has in store.

 

Paul Taylor Dance Company Special Anniversary Performance on March 13th with ALL tix $3.50

The Paul Taylor Dance Company's fabulous inaugural season at Lincoln Center runs from March 14 through April 1.  As you know, ticket prices begin at an astonishing $10 plus facility fee.  The season is an ambitious one with premieres and major revivals. 

Just announced minutes ago: 

PTDC will add a special performance on Tuesday, March 13 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Taylor's Aureole.  EVERY ticket in the house will cost – hold on to your hats – $3.50 which was the top ticket price in 1962.  In honor of the celebration, the theater is waiving all of its extra facility and convenience fees. 

The March 13 program will include Aureole, Troilus and Cressida (reduced), Brandenburgs and Piazzolla Caldera. 

Tickets for this special performance go on sale at the box office, by phone (212-496-0600), and on the theater's website on Monday, January 9th at 10:00 a.m. 

We want this inaugural season to work in a big way and guarantee PTDC will return year after year with its great dancers and wonderful dances, not to mention the realization of the seductive whisperings of collaboration with NYCB.

Don't miss this celebration on March 13th!

 

PTDC – #136 starts tomorrow and we're invited!

Have you done your $5 Sign-up for Create With Taylor?

Tomorrow the PTDC dancers step back into the studio for the first day of rehearsals when Paul Taylor will begin to create his 136th dance.  It will premiere during the three week March season at Lincoln Center.  Performance tickets start at $10 plus a $2 service fee, of course. 

Photographers and videographers will record the creation process and then will post their work on the special website Create With Taylor which you can access throughout the creation period with password after you've made  one little $5 tax deductible donation.  In addition, the photographers, dancers, company personnel, and subscribers are now blogging some pretty incredible stuff on the special website page.  Really incredible stuff, people.

One of the photographers selected by the PTDC to record this historic process of creation is Matthew Murphy who used to dance with ABT and is developing into a fine dance photographer.

It's $5.  It's historic.  Sign up today and also go get tickets to PTDC's first season at Lincoln Center.  Stuff them in Christmas cards.  Use them as place cards at your holiday party.  Give the Gift of Dance to everyone you know.  Tickets start at $10.  That's $10.  There must be a Santa.

Paul Taylor – 21st Century Pioneer

He's still doing it.  Still forging a path through new territory when he doesn't know where it will all lead.

One of the "Top Stories" in Crain's New York Business this week (November 14-20) is the Paul Taylor Dance Company's new fundraising initiative in which Paul Taylor will allow bloggers, photographers, and videographers to be present in the rehearsal studio to observe his creation process.  The results of each day will be posted on a new website page "Create With Taylor." 

Here's the fundraising part:  For unlimited access to that page, donors will pay $5.  Donors who contribute more, say $500, will be invited to watch the dress rehearsal. 

Crains refers to Taylor as "widely considered to be the last living member of the pantheon that created the modern-dance art form."  Yes, indeed.

$5 to witness Paul Taylor in creation mode?!  Every conservatory and university dance student in America should pony up the $5 to get a glimpse of this - it should be a class course requirement.  Every budding and flourishing choreographer from Kennebunkport, Maine to Kearny, Arizona and from Kennewick, Washington to Kissimmee, Florida should pony up $5 to watch this.  We should all pony up the $5 to watch Paul Taylor's creation process.

As the Crain's article noted, Paul Taylor, himself, doesn't use the internet. 

Also of extreme interest in the article is mention of future collaborations on music and programming between PTDC and NYCB if PTDC returns to Lincoln Center after next year.

It's $5 folks.  Now come on, really.  $5.  Do it today.

Paul Taylor moving to Lincoln Center

The Paul Taylor Dance Company will have a three week season in the spring at Lincoln Center (Balanchine Stage) made possible by New York City Opera's exit.  This is TOTALLY AWESOME!  However, Haglund had to laugh at Paul Taylor's comment, "It puts us up in the big league."  Uh, no, it makes the Lincoln Center League a bit bigger and brighter.

Haglund is ready to buy tickets today, so long as the 4th Ring is open.  Hey, maybe PTDC should start its own 4th Ring Society.  PTDC 4th Ring Society would look damn good on a tee-shirt.