The New Yorker: For six decades, the Paul Taylor Dance Company has been just that—a company devoted to the creative outpourings of one man. And that was enough, both for Mr. Taylor and for the dancers. He’s prolific and disciplined. To date, he has made a hundred and forty-two dances, usually at a pace of two per year. Some are better than others, but he never runs out of ideas or the desire to get out of bed and head to the studio. (This, at the age of eighty-four.) And the company has achieved a high level of success; since 2012, it has presented yearly seasons at Lincoln Center, an anomaly in the cash-strapped world of modern dance. Only Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre can say the same.
2 comments:
Change is really taking over the arts. It seems like contemporary music and movement pieces are becoming old and boring. In this article I really appreciate what they are doing. Giving new and living choreographers the chance to create new types of dance is very interesting. It will always keep the audience on their toes. Expecting the unexpected seems to be the only way to get attention from the rest of the world. This reminds me of how Carnegie Mellon has innovative events like playground and concerts created and performed by students. I'm hoping in the future we can call our contemporary and modern style something else and new because the art we are creating today is so interesting and it's earned it's place to receive a unique title. I remember sitting in class a few days ago listening to a preview of what's to come for the upcoming orchestra concert and the music that the student composers are so amazing. They're styles I've never heard of before.
I think what this choreographer is doing is very impressive. Being a huge dance enthusiast, I have been watching big name companies die out and cease to exist after the choreographer dies and if their pieces were not reordered in some way die with them as much as the performers. At the core what this choreographer has done is ask himself what he wanted his legacy to be and is in the beginning stages to see his legacy live on. He is very wise and lucky to be doing that because too often people spend their entire life building up a company to provide their children or family a better opportunity, the American dream, but society is shifting in that people are starting to want to form their own path. There is nothing wrong with this shift it just makes the person responsible for creating it a little harder because now while they are coming to terms with the end of life must now also balance the thought of having a system in place to keep their ideas going and getting their legacy live on forever such that their life’s work has not gone to waste.
Post a Comment