at Lincoln Center is going to be pretty exciting and will further clarify Mr. Taylor's vision and mission for his new organization.
The season will run from March 16 through April 3 and will include performances by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and other musical guest artists to be disclosed at a later date. There will be live music at every performance.
PTDC will perform 14 of Mr. Taylor's works along with his newest dances: Sullivaniana and Dilly Dilly. The company will also perform Martha Graham's Diversion of Angels, made in 1948, and two new works that Mr. Taylor has commissioned from Larry Keigwin and Doug Elkins.
The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company will perform Donald McKayle's Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder which was created in 1958.
We're looking forward to seeing Promethean Fire again. The last of its four performances will be the final performance of the season on a bill with Diversion of Angels and Equinox.
Diversion of Angels will be new for PTDC. Since Graham's death, several ballet companies have acquired the work including ABT where Gillian Murphy and Stella Abrera both gave exquisite performances in the lead role in 1999. But it will be especially interesting to see the Taylor dancers tackle this masterpiece and to observe to what extent Mr. Taylor's own experiences dancing the work for Graham inform his company's interpretation.
In his book, Transcending Boundaries: My Dancing Life, Donald McKayle described Graham company rehearsals of Diversion of Angels back in the 1950s that he and Mr. Taylor had been thrown into when they were the newest men in the company. He recalled dancer Ethel Winter's frustration with Pearl Lang who was supposed to be teaching her the woman's role in the Red Duet section:
Ethel, who was learning the role from Pearl Lang who had originated the part, came out of those rehearsals with steam rising from her ears. "What's wrong, Ethel?" "That bitch refuses to teach me the dance." "Why.... what do you mean?" "She keeps saying, 'Martha never choreographed this section.'" "Why don't you ask her to teach you whatever the hell she's been doing for the last seven years?" The next day the part was learned but there were wonderful idiosyncratic movement transitions that were to remain with Pearl Lang and enter her own growing repertoire.
Esplanade, Offenbach Overtures, and Beloved Renegade will return for the season as well.
Tickets will go on sale to the public on September 16th. Friends of Paul Taylor's American Modern Dance may purchase them the week before by calling 646-214-5829.
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