Paul Taylor at Lincoln Center in NYC... and an observation about auditions.

Auditioning for a company takes more courage than most people in the world might realize. and for those of you familiar with the process, bravo! Rather than individual interviews, dance auditions in particular are an exercise in performing. You are in a studio with many other hopeful dancers witnessing and being judged on how well or badly you do at learning choreography, executing steps and taking direction. And the most important scrutiny is typically just one or two people at the "front of the room". Yet this is also an exercise in performing in front of an audience, whether for just a few people or for thousands. Every dancer in Paul Taylor Dance Company has had their own experience of auditioning for the company, even if they might not have known it. Your conduct out in the world can affect how you are perceived in a singular audition as well as in the dance field at large. There is rarely more than two degrees of separation between the most famous of dancers and any longstanding artist or director in dance. 

In class (?) at Northern Ballet School, circa 1979.

Since 2012, Paul Taylor Dance Company (PTDC) has performed their home season in New York City at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. And even though Paul Taylor died in 2018, his repertoire of works are still the primary anchor and defining factor in why the company continues to carry his name. I am going to take the time to outline why I think his dances warrant such a legacy both for dancers and audiences well into the future. However, no one choreographer can serve all aspects of what is needed, yet Taylor's dances certainly exemplify the how broadly dance can express itself.

For years I would hear Taylor express his dislike of pre-show and post-show talks, and if they needed to exist, then try to keep the conversation around the dances that the audience would see or had just experienced. He would say that if his dances needed verbal explanation, then maybe they weren't that successful. In some cases, he would measure the success of his choreogrpaphy by how well the dance stood on its own when performed by different casts through the years. I think he actually enjoyed seeing other companies performing his work, especially when dancers he did not know showed him new facets that built on his original intent. Of course the inverse could be true, and but he would usually blame the stager, as he often took the blame himself when he was not happy with his casting of dancers in his own company. I was not immune to such judgement, and he was not shy about asking me to remind him the next time he revived the work. He rarely removed us from dancing roles once we had been cast, but we might not make it into a subsequent revival of the same work.

Promo shot from Three Epitaphs

So... of the Taylor dances it is possible to see in their 2026 season, here are my anecdotal notes, starting with Three Epitaphs (1956. Music: recordings of early New Orleans jazz). This is probably the earliest of Taylor's work that is a perennial through almost every generation of Taylor dancers, and it exemplifies Taylor's sense of 'physical humor' while subverting expectations of 'dance' even by today's standards. Years into my tenure dancing for Taylor, I performed a comic role for a dancer who got injured. Taylor's response to me was, "You do have a sense of humor!" I am guessing that's why I was never cast to dance Three Epitaphs.

Michael Trusnovec in Arabesque!

Arabesque (1999. Music by Claude Debussy) was created when I was scheduled to have surgery on my right foot, and it was the second dance Taylor created to Debussy in the time I danced for him. The physical vocabulary hints at darker more distorted imaginings than either the costumes or music might imply, and often reminds me of Taylor's desire to illustrate a sinister underbelly to beauty. By the time I started dancing for PTDC, my hair was thinning on the top of my head, and Taylor mentioned that I might want to do something about it. Hmm... so for years, I used to wear a 'hairpiece', to perform. Once, when I went on in Arabesque, a fellow dancer mentioned that it was the first time the dance had been done with TWO wigs. I will let you find out who wears the other wig. Hah!

Airs - Silvia Nevjinsky, Jill Echo, Lisa Viola, Patrick Corbin, Thomas Patrick, Richard Chen See

Airs (1978. Music by George F. Handel) is a quintessential dance about the beauty of humans in constant motion to Handel's music, which I have commonly seen done by ballet companies. As a dancer, it is includes iconic duets and ensemble dancing in which to revel once your role has become a part of how you hear the music. I had been performing the 'Gigue duet' for many years, but it was not until I staged the dance for the first time that I realized it was spelled as a French word, not as 'Jig'.

Brandenburgs (1988. Music by J.S. Bach) was created in the style of Taylor's other critically acclaimed lyrical works like like Airs. But there were six new men in the company, and Taylor featured them like a male chorus around three women and one man who exemplified Taylor's aesthetic established in their years in the company. This was one of the few dances where Taylor let me know he was not thrilled with casting me in the central male role, and I only danced it for one season. Knowing my own strengths, I know why other dancers are better suited to the role, and I was grateful to have been given the chance to dance it myself.

...Byzantium - Richard Chen See, Julie Tice, Orion Duckstein, Lisa Viola, Laura Halzack
Photo: Tom Caravaglia

...Byzantium (1984. Music by Edgar Varèse) re-entered the repertory late in my dance career at PTDC. However, Taylor was always fascinated by the Byzantine Empire and its sustained culture and governance spanning hundreds of years. So much so that I participated in the creation of two other dances inspired by and pulling from his earlier ...Byzantium. Inversely, I think that PTDC dancers having experienced the later works imbue the current revival with depth and nuance to be found in the movement, the challenging score, and the abstractly evocative designs.

Amy Young & Robert Kleinendorst studio shot for Cloven Kingdom. Photo: Tom Caravaglia

Cloven Kingdom (1976. Music by Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Cowell, Malloy Miller arranged by John Herbert McDowell) is a unique 'movement essay' on the dual nature human and beast. Taylor includes a subtitle, "Man is a social animal" - Spinoza, though the philosophical concept goes back even further to Aristotle. I had seen Cloven performed many times before I joined PTDC, and not just by his company. It is a dance about social conventions and our baser animal instincts, and the visual composition is an important facet. As one of the shortest men ever hired by PTDC I did not anticipate as many chances as I had to perform Cloven, but I will quote former dancer Douglas Wright and say, "I dance 5'10"!"

Esplanade: Jamie Rae Walker, Robert Kleinendorst, Aileen Roehl. 

Esplanade (1975. Music by J.S. Bach) is a 'storied' dance that brings the concept of 'pedestrianism' to a concert dance stage and touches on the breadth of human interactions. It is one of those dances that really NEEDS to be seen. There are only three men in the cast, and thankfully Taylor strove to have every dancer appear in at least one dance in any given program, so opportunities to dance it came fairly early. Tenure with the company also afforded dancers greater opportunity to perform Esplanade, and by the time I retired after fifteen years with PTDC, the exhilaration of dancing Esplanade only grew with each performance.

Last Look: original cast from 1985. Photo: Beatriz Schiller

Last Look (1985. Music commissioned from Donald York) is definitely an unabashed 'dark' dance by Taylor. For twenty-five minutes the dancers never leave the stage. They live in a post-apocalyptic world navigating Alex Katz's set of mirror-towers, a metaphorical maze of self-reflection and self-blame. I had seen PTDC perform Last Look in the seventies, and did not realize the complex craft behind the relentlessly opressive tone of the dance. In the midst of my first studio-run of the work for Taylor, he said to me that my role was of the 'hopeful' person! I never forgot that directive, and I never knew if I achieved it. LOL.

Stage setting for Piazzolla Caldera.

Piazzolla Caldera (1997. Music by Astor Piazzolla and Jerzy Peterburshsky) felt very unique from other Taylor dances I had experienced, right from the start. We were encouraged to visit Argentine Tango milongas or clubs, and then asked to take inspiration from the music without appropriating the steps. The 'world' was completed with Santo Loquasto's set and costume designs, particularly for the women, and Jennifer Tipton's lighting created an intense and intimate atmosphere. Taylor created the male duet in Celos for me and Thomas Patrick, and I admit, at first, to imagining a longer segment to explore. But Taylor knew best, and the balance and pacing of the whole work engages and highlights the variety of characters for an audience.

Opening tableau, Spindrift. Photo: Johan Elbers

Spindrift (1993. Music by Arnold Schoenberg) is a visually arresting work highlighted by Santo Loquasto's painted backdrop of a tempestuous shoreline. This painting is inspired by the view from Taylor's home on the north shore of Long Island, overlooking the Long Island Sound. The dance premiered right before I joined the company, and I became the understudy for a number of the male roles. Taylor centered this dance around Andrew Asnes, keeps him as the central protagonist who leaves the stage only once, while the larger community from which he seeks acceptance, come-and-go like spindrift off the caps of waves on a stormy ocean. Spindrift seemed designed to explore new movement vocabulary for Taylor, and as a new member of the company, I realized that no single thread of training was going to be the key to becoming a 'Taylor dancer'.

20th C ballets/dances created to be seen live!

Admittedly, my performance career began in the 20th century and lasted until 2008. My earliest memories of attending theatrical performances start around 1968 seeing "Panto" (Jamaican versions of British Pantomime). Billed as family shows, Panto often dramatized Jamaican lore and legend while satirizing current events in song and dance as tradition dictated. By the time I was four I read comics and fairy tales and I listened to dramas and reggae on the radio. By the time I was six, on Saturdays mornings I was dropped off to see double feature movies like the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weismuller and Disney features like "Old Yeller" and "The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit". Going to the theater to see a live performance was always a special treat, and a memorable experience, though it did mean putting on shoes... which were my least favorite type of clothing. Hah! Ending my performance career as a "barefoot modern dancer" seemed pre-ordained.

My childhood in Jamaica climbing trees and barefoot.

Video or televised dance was almost non-existent in my experience growing up, especially on a Caribbean island where broadcast television was a single channel available for a couple of hours in the mornings and early evenings. Decades later, the proliferation of dance videos are still primarily "reminders" of live performances, for me. Even when I first see a dance on video, I long to see it in performance, and I accept that recordings of storied dancers will be my only chance to imagine their artistry on stage that led to their legend. Great dancers can elevate almost any choreography, and great choreography elevates both individual artistes and ensembles. As a theatrical experience, costume, set, and lighting designs are the components that complete an artistic vision. For this post, I am limiting myself to writing about dances where my first experience of them in a theater remains with me today, decades later. I wish I could see them performed again live, regularly.

Sphinx by Glen Tetley (1977. Bohuslav Martinu) had a stunning set by Rouben Ter Arutunian featuring a curved ram midstage bound on each side by soaring wings. The costumes designed by Willa Kim were constructed unitards with abstract designs. The first performance I saw was peformed by London Festival Ballet with Martine van Hamel as a special guest star in the title role. She and her pivotal role dominates my memory of that performance. It is not often revived, though it was created for American Ballet Theatre and joined the repertoires of many major ballet companies like, The Royal Ballet (London), Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), and the National Ballet of Canada. 

clip from BBC studio recording of Peter Schaufuss & Elisabetta Terabust in Sphinx.

Pictured - Sphinx: Martine van Hamel/Marianela Núñez. Anubis: Kirk Peterson.
Oedipus: Rupert Pennefather.

My career would bring me into many adjacent associations with Glen Tetley including Paul Taylor whose own performing and choreographic career paralleled Tetley's in many ways. However, Taylor built a performing company while Tetley sustained a freelance choreographic career. In 1962 Tetley did form his own performing ensemble and closed his first program with Pierrot Lunaire to the song cycle by Arnold Schoenberg. I have always wanted to see Pierrot Lunaire performed live as I first learned about it seeing a broadcast of Rudolph Nureyev performing the title role. I digress here from speaking about live performances that attracted me to certain dances, because of how my life always seemed just one step removed from Tetley. One of the first people I met when I joined Paul Taylor's company in 1993 was Linda Hodes, who was a lifelong friend to both Taylor and Tetley, and with whom I enjoyed an ongoing friendship until she died just last year. Linda was in the original cast of Pierrot Lunaire in NYC on May 5, 1962. The dance's legend lives on. It was revived by the Royal Ballet & Opera just this year, and I still haven't seen it live... 

clip from 1977 film of Rudolph Nureyev dancing Pierrot Lunaire.

Robert Powell, Glen Tetley, Linda Hodes - Pierrot Lunaire. Photo: Jack Mitchell

Sons of Horus by David Bintley (1985. Music: Peter McGowan. Designs: Terry Bartlett) caught my attention the first time I saw it performed by San Francisco Ballet circa 1988. I had been familiar with Bintley's name as a dancer with the Royal Ballet and his 'Still Life' at the Penguin Cafe had just been filmed by Thames Television in the UK and broadcast on PBS in the USA. Sons of Horus still sticks with me for the mythic quality of the characters, and for Bintley's craft at dynamic chorus movement with entrances and exits that implied an endless parade of humanity. I have not encountered news of any revivals of the dance, and there doesn't appear to be any available video recordings available. 

Sons of Horus image captured from David Bintley website https://www.davidbintley.co.uk/ 

Billy The Kid by Eugene Loring (1938. Music: Aaron Copland). With a libretto by Lincoln Kirstein original set and costume designs were by Jared French. This was my first exposure to what I consider to be an authentic Americana work. In truth, I may have performed the ballet before I ever saw it from the audience, but I was always struck by how Loring so clearly told the story and brought a feel for the era and the American West to life. One of my favorite sections was the "danse macabre" that both musically and choreographically broke from the style and tone of the rest of the ballet. Yet it brings a self-aware absurdity to the proceedings and rallies the viewer's attention to the drama unfolding. 

Silent film footage of Billy the Kid circa 1939. Ann Barzel Film Archive. 

studio photo of Billy the Kid 

Billy the Kid performed by Oakland Ballet Company in 1975
Mother/Sweetheart: Patrice Whiteside (executor for Eugene Loring's estate)
Billy: Lance James.

I had heard Copland's music before in concerts that included his Fanfare for the Common Man and Applachian Spring, and my appreciation for Copland's music was strengthened by seeing the dances for which he composed music including Rodeo, and the little seen The Tender Land. Loring created The Tender Land with Oakland Ballet Company shortly before I joined, and it was revived regularly over the next decade or so. I believe it to have been a kind of vanity project created between Copland and Loring. The Tender Land ballet has all the classic trademark music and choreography of both creatives, and I never failed to be moved by performances that ever evoked the heart and spirit of the American Pioneers. 

Oakland Ballet's Julie Lowe as 'Beth' in The Tender Land circa 1987. 

video clip from Oakland Ballet Legacy project by Chroma Diverse.

Patrice Whiteside as 'Laurie' in The Tenderland with Oakland Ballet Company circa 1978.

To accommodate both my available time to create these posts, and to allow me to include many more dances I wish could be seen on stages everywhere, I will continue my compendium in the weeks to come. 

American Ballet Theatre opens their two week run at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. On their first program is Petite Mort by Jiří Kylián (1991. Music: W.A. Mozart). Designs conceived by Kylián himself, I had not realized that this dance was created much later than his Sinfonietta (1978. Music: Leoš Janáček). While both of these ballets are available on video, their impact in live performance cannot compare. The recordings are great reminders of watching a performance play out. And each dancer and company performing the works bring it a different life for the viewers. 

Linda & Glenn were two dancers I had the pleasure of working with when
I staged a Taylor work for AAADT.

Sinfonietta by Jiří Kylián
Roslyn Anderson, Alida Chase, Michael Sanders, Nils Christe. Photo: Sven Ulsa

As I looked up the original cast of Sinfonietta, I saw names of people I either met or learned of during my career as teachers, directors, and choreographers in their own right. I feel distinctly privileged to see that they were a part of the creation of what I consider to be a truly great dance!

Ballets that shaped my early career...

Looking back at more than half-a-century since I attended my first dance performance, I cannot help but wonder which dances shaped my path, and which I would wish every person to have the chance to see for themselves! 

Coppélia with Lizanne McAdams circa 1992

There is inexplicable magic in witnessing dance in live performance that might only make sense once it has been experienced. The ubiquitous availability of dance on video might lead the uninitiated to imagine that seeing dance performed live may be similar. Yet for me, having grown up rarely seeing dance on film, I have rarely been captivated by a filmed performance to which I had no prior connection. Dance directed and choreographed for film is a different matter, but for this post, I will stick with exploring live dance peformances that shaped my interest in ballet and dance education in my early career.

Les Sylphides (1907. Music: Frédéric Chopin) based on the choreography of Michel Fokine was originally titled Chopiniana. This was one of the earliest ballets I danced in my dance school's production in Kingston, Jamaica. The choreography was obviously adapted for my abilities as a child, but I remember that it was the first time I ever performed a grand jeté en tournant (aka tour jeté, or jeté entrelacé) on stage! Ha! The senior girls were en pointe and assuredly performed more accurate renditions of the choreography than me. I would not see a professional performance of Les Sylphides until years later by London Festival Ballet (now known as English National Ballet) in the early 1970's. I was surprised at how vividly the music shaped the choreography I was seeing, and realized how well coached we had been as students. One of my favorite Poets was Mikhail Baryshnikov performing with American Ballet Theatre in the early 1980's. This ballet also introduced me to the Sylphs of ballet mythology, and led me to seek out performances of La Syphide and Giselle (where the Willis similarly defined the ballet blanc embodiment for female dancers, yet are the antithesis of motivation and temperament to Sylphs). 

Mikhail Baryshnikov as the Poet in Les Sylphides.

La Syphide by August Bournonville (1836. Herman Severin Løvenskjold), is the interpretation in active performing repertoire today. Created after the original ballet by Filipo Taglione (1832. Music: Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer) featuring Marie Taglioni. Both ballets were based on the same libretto, however, Bournonville had to commission new music when the Paris Opera, where the dance was originally created, demanded too high a price to use the Schneitzhoeffer score. Once again, London Festival Ballet provided my introduction to this ballet in which Peter Schaufuss was James, and exemplified the Bournonville style into my perspective. 

Peter Schaufuss and Carla Fracci in La Syphide. (screen capture)

Giselle by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli (1841. Adolph Adam). The first professional performance I saw on stage was London Festival Ballet in 1971 as reconstructed by Mary Skeaping. Rudolph Nureyev partnered Eva Evdokimova. While I recognized Nureyev's technical strength, I was a little put off by his larger than life persona that overshadowed his being Albrecht. And, I have never forgotten his second act entrance where he wielded his cloak like a superhero's billowing cape! 

Rudolf Nureyev and Eva Evdokimova in Giselle.

I will digress here to say that my favorite re-choreographed interpretation of Giselle is by Mats Ek for Cullberg Ballet in 1982. Yet I have never seen it performed live on stage. The 1987 film was adapted by Mats Ek and filmed in a studio. I loved getting to see the articulate dancing and how the choreography made sense of the psychology behind the characters. I would jump at the chance to see a stage production! 

Ana Laguna and Luc Bouy in Giselle by Mats Ek

Getting back to my exploration of nineteenth century ballet, the first professional ballet company I ever saw perform in Jamaica was the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. A performance I remember was not in a traditional theater but in the National Arena in Kingston where they built a temporary stage with no proscenium. On the program was my previously described El Rio Y El Bosque by Alberto Méndez (1972. Félix Guerrero), and Pas de Quatre.

Pas de Quatre by Jules Perrot (1845. Cesare Pugni). Originally created for the reigning ballerinas of the day: Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni. I remember the ballet as satirically comic with vividly drawn characterizations by the four Cuban ballerinas, and a very unique, stylized carriage of the torso and arms. 

Pas de Quatre. Lithograph by A.E. Chalon

Ballet Nacional de Cuba was led by the legendary Alicia Alonzo, whom I had the privilege to see perform in Jamaica on an earlier tour of the company where they performed at Ward Theatre, built in 1912 in the classical style of European jewel box opera houses. It is located on the original site of The Kingston Theatre that dated back to 1715, rebuilt multiple times following its destruction from fire and earthquake in various decades. Only illustrations remain as records of how the earlier incarnations of the theater looked. 

Ward Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica.

Carmen Suite by Alberto Alonso (1967. Rodion Shchedrin arrangement of George Bizet’s score for strings and percussion) was first seen in Jamaica circa 1969. This ballet was created for Alicia Alonzo, and seeing her perform the titular role was unforgettable. To me, she was a transcendent character on stage, versus the soft-spoken persona she presented in public and as she led classes I got to observe. 

Alicia Alonzo as Carmen (downloaded from web)

And circling back to the first image on this post, I have probably been most directly involved with Coppélia as a performer and rehearsal director throughout my career. From my early days as an apprentice at Northern Ballet Theatre (Manchester, England), I was a doll (Act II) and corps de ballet Csárdás (Act III) in Peter Clegg's staging of the Royal Ballet's version. I assisted my coach, Christopher Gable, when he set Coppélia for the Bush Davies School (East Grinstead, England. Closed in 1989). I later staged an excerpt of "Swanhilda and her friends from Act I", for my the Rowe Studios of Ballet in Kingston, where I first trained in ballet. Occasional guest artist stints had me performing as lead partner for both the Mazurkas and Csárdás in Act III and Franz. In 1993, I also assisted Igor Youskevitch and Alexandra Danilova as they taught/coached the Coppélia wedding pas de deux from Act III for the New York International Ballet Competition. 

Leading Csárdás (Act III) Coppélia

Coppélia by Arthur Saint-Léon (1870. Léo Delibes) often restaged as “after original choreography by ...” 

Afro-Caribbean traditions in Concert Dance?

As I consider my intent behind continuing to write on this blog, I decided to change the name of the blog to "Ballet, Dance, and Paul Taylor", since the focus of my writing has shifted over the past year of creating posts. My original venture into blogging was in 2017 to record my six month Fulbright sojourn to India. Then I kept a short blog about being a Fulbright Specialist to New Zealand. 

Portraits from teaching in Goa, India. Photos: Purnendra Meshram

Early last year, 2025, I wanted to offer my perspective on teaching an Adult Beginner Ballet program at the new Taylor Center for Dance Education in New York City, this blog was the result. Over time, it evolved into how my life in dance shapes my perspectives, and it seemed appropriate to adjust the title from "Ballet Basics at Taylor".

The 2029/30 season of performances has begun, and every week there are numerous offerings of dance companies and projects being presented, both here in NYC and all around the world. Making choices of what to see is often based on the named dances and choreographers, and what I may or may not know about them. Below I remember some of the dances that put me where I am. I doubt it is readily possible to see them performed on stage today, and I am sad that this is the case. I will start with works that are fading into legend rather than being readily performed. These are dances that shaped my career and perspectives. I have no doubt the list will be decidedly different for you!

(Prof.) Rex Nettleford was one of the founding artistic directors of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) of Jamaica in the West Indies. He was also a prolific choreographer, determined to develop a dance aesthetic that reflected Jamaican culture and experience. Many of the 1962 founding dancers were trained in conservatories in London and New York City, and would choreograph their own legacies in this tradition, while I was a young dancer training under them. Two dances by Nettleford have stayed with me since first seeing them performed in their premiere years, Street People (1973) and The Crossing (1978).

Street People photo: NDTC website.
pictured are two of my favorite Afro-Caribbean folk teachers,
Jackie Guy and Joyce Campbell!

NDTC performed Street People on tour at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in NYC and it was descriptively reviewed in the New York Times, April 9th 1974, by Don McDonagh: "The thing that most characterizes the Jamaicans is their relentlessness in presenting movement, song or music. They never try to overpower the viewer, but persistently and lyrically pour waves of sound and motion out like a net to catch attention." "Street People is ... about casual encounters in a large city. It emerges as a series of dalliances with laughter never far away, as a street preacher tries to ward off the inevitable slip from grace. The décor suggests a poor neighborhood by one with a rich capacity for enjoyment. In other hands the piece might have emerged as an angry social protest; in Mr. Nettleford's it was distinctly pleasureful."

The Crossing photos: NDTC Facebook
pictures include Patsy Ricketts and Barry Moncrieffe, Jamaicans who trained in NYC at Dance Theatre of Harlem and at Martha Graham respectively, and who helped shape NDTC's place in global dance recognition

For me, The Crossing was a bold, unflinching portrait of an African-American experience of The Middle Passage. Set to excerpts from Quincy Jones' score for the 1977 US television series "Roots", Nettleford blended contemporary and Afro-Caribbean movement languages to illustrate the beautiful and grotesque extremes of the events that included images of majestic African ceremony, willful death, slavery, striving for hope through community. 

Sulkari performed by NDTC. Photo: NDTC Facebook

Jamaica's proximity to Cuba was more than geographic, in dance we shared dancers and traditions. Eduardo Rivero-Walker was born and raised in Jamaica before he moved to Cuba, and become an anchor of Cuban contemporary dance throughout the 20th century. My first experience of Rivero-Walker's choreography was seeing his Sulkari performed by NDTC, when I was already pursuing a ballet career in the UK. My friends and peers at NDTC were joining the legacy of redefining Afro-Caribbean dance inspired by a range of African cultures, in this case Yoruba. You can find a Cuban studio film of Sulkari on YouTube - Sulkari.

photo from Ballet Nacional de Cuba on Facebook

Alberto Méndez is a Cuban choreographer whose celebrated pas de deux El Rio Y El Bosque was created for Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC) and I had the privilege of seeing it performed in Jamaica when the BNC was on tour in the 1970's. It brought classical ballet and Afro-Carribean dance together by literal representation of the female, Oshún (el Rio) character sur pointe in a decorative unitard, and the male, Oggún (el Bosque) clad only in a raffia skirt, trunks and in soft ballet shoes. Ignoring present day interpretations of gendered roles in dance, I recall being struck by the beauty of the sensual and sinuous qualities represented in both the elongated elegance of the pliant woman on pointe, and the grounded power of the man with a rippling spine to turn, jump and lift the woman. While there are other versions of the pas de deux available online, my preference is this blurry recording that is attractive to me because of my memory of seeing it performed live!

Every debut is a world premiere! It just depends on your perspective.

A debut performance for dancers, companies, production teams (and indeed this also applies to performing musicians, actors, et al) can sound like something a little less than a world premiere. Yet the reality is that for the above mentioned, their debut performance will be the benchmark of their experience with that specific work for the rest of their lives, and their personal world premiere. I recently completed re-staging "Company B" for Richmond Ballet's first ever Paul Taylor dance. My informal poll of the dancers and the audience indicated that almost none of them had ever seen "Company B", or any other Taylor works, while many knew his name. 

With Richmond Ballet dancers ready to perform "Company B". Photo: Sarah Ferguson

Still, no matter how much you may have read or heard about a dance, there is nothing that will ever replace the first time you actually dance in it, or see it performed live for the first time. The first cast and production you experience will be the performance with whom and with which you will associate every subsequent performance of the work. Hopefully the experience is a positive one, or at least engaging enough for you to care about returning for another show. 

With another cast of Richmond Ballet dancers in "Company B". Photo: Sarah Fergurson

I am not saying that the first performance of a work will be the only, or even the most storied, memory against which all other performances of that work will be measured. Only that for dancers it is their introduction of themselves to an audience within the framework of a particular dance.

Rehearsal with Josiah, Madeline and dancers of Richmond Ballet. Photo: Molly Huey

The first day that I walk into a studio as a rehearsal director to begin re-staging a dance, I remember what it was like to be early in my performance career with very little knowledge of what to expect. I did not grow up surrounded by dance and theatre, even though I did start dance classes when I was seven. As a young professional, I found myself decidedly behind my peers in terms of knowledge about the ballets, the dances, and the choreographers whose work I would be performing. In some ways this probably served me well, as I had no pre-conceived notions about what roles I might be dancing, or how hard/easy a work might be to learn and perform. 

Richmond Ballet in "Company B". Photo: Sarah Ferguson

The first step of programming a Taylor dance for a company is most often the choice of its Artistic Director, and at Richmond Ballet this is Ma Cong! I am grateful that his invitation, as familiar colleagues, provided me the opportunity to get back in a studio with dancers. Before the debut performances are revealed to audiences, the public must be enticed to know what and when such events will take place. Once upon a time word-of-mouth was likely the only option for marketing. Then came print: flyers and posters; soon after there would be advertisements in news publications. Radio was probably the next innovation to expand mass communications, and film reels and television would add to the attractiveness of what we were being told with synchronized visual action. A world wide web of electronic communications and wireless access led us to the previously unimaginable world of social media. 

Richmond Ballet in "Company B". Photo: Sarah Ferguson

While I might not be quite a luddite, as my generation is often described, I have to admit that writing this blog illustrates my preference for reading and writing, over video and reliance on images to speak for myself. Stepping along my proposed timeline of mass communication, I have engaged with interviewers for their podcasts in the hopes that my words might catch the curiousity of a listener enough to take a seat at a dance performance. My most recent interview was conducted by Lisa Ruth Niemeier, who is a musician and podcaster based in Richmond. She introduced herself to me after the opening night at Richmond Ballet, and asked to interview me. I thought that if we were going to talk about Paul Taylor and "Company B", wouldn't it be best to give listeners the opportunity to still catch a performance over their second weekend run at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. So we conducted the interview on Sunday, and you can listen to it HERE! 

Paul Taylor's dances are most commonly performed by the company that bears his name, and Paul Taylor Dance Company's upcoming performances over the next few months include Southport CT (9/19), Minneapolis MN (9/26), Denver CO (10/17), Bronx NY (10/24).

Then they can be seen at the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center in New York City NY in seven performances a week from November 3 - 22. Each performance is a different combination of works selected from 16 dances, spanning 11 Taylor dances, 2 world premieres, 2 company premieres, and 1 New York premiere.

Navigating one's vulnerability as a professional performer.

I had set out to write this post at the beginning of August, and here it is, September! Yikes! A lot took place for me in the past month, and I found myself reflecting on what parts of my psyche served me better as a performer than as an administrator. I am who I am, and at the same time, I need to remember to balance the "roles" I play as a member of any given culture or organization. In simple terms my work life vacillates between Arts manager, archivist, dance teacher, rehearsal director, advocate, and (content) writer. This August put me though my paces in all capacities (well I thought about what I wanted to write! LOL). 

Me rehearsing Richmond Ballet in "Company B" by Paul Taylor. Photo: Molly Huey

I wrote about keeping archives alive in an earlier post Paul Taylor's vocabulary which provides a little explanation about that binder I am holding in my hand!

There is an interesting paradox in pursuing a profession of performing for an audience of strangers, you are asked to be vulnerable in the studio and on stage while being invulnerable to the reality that you cannot control how others may perceive you. In everyday life we learn acceptable behaviour, more often than not, from the consequences of what is unacceptable. On stage and in the studio dancers/actors/singers are consistently asked to let the world see their vulnerabilities to create a belief that observer and performer could be/feel the same as "humans". I believe this to be the essence of "theatre" where performers are metaphors of the myriad experiences of observers through their artful work. 

"Speaking in Tongues" & "Black Tuesday"
with Annmaria Mazzini & Maureen Mansfield. Photos: Lois Greenfield

In September 2026, Los Angeles Ballet will have their company premiere of Taylor's "Dilly Dilly" at the Broad Stage Theater in Santa Monica, CA, and Richmond Ballet will have their company premiere of Taylor's "Company B" at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA. You could also see Paul Taylor Dance Company performing Taylor works alongside new works by the likes of Robert Battle and Pam Tanowitz in NY, CT, and MN.

No matter the venue, for audiences, the dancers will be the heart of the performance. The choreography, costumes, production, and lighting provide the framework for them to be larger than life so that every viewer might connect with them. And it is my privilege to be shepherding Paul Taylor's dances and the alumni who stage the works. Having the opportunity to continue re-staging a Taylor dance myself is a welcome opportunity to hone the documentation I have been generating for use by our stagers (see my post Stager/Rehearsal Director/Répétiteur). Most recently, the rehearsal director at Richmond Ballet, Igor Antonov, was assigned to care for "Company B" following my time with them. I was extremely appreciative of his detailed care through which we adjusted oversights and mistakes in my documentation. However, this only served to underline that such documentation is only a memory aid for the "person at the front of the rooom" who is responsible to know how to communicate the roles to the dancers. 

I like to paraphrase Paul Taylor where he would say that individual steps are less important than the intent they were designed to convey. Yet Taylor did typically provide us with very specific steps and sequences as he built his choreography. The final sequences may ultimately vary somewhat from one dancer to the next, yet Taylor was always clear about striving for how choreographed movement had a purpose. So artistic decisions have to be made for the dancer learning to perform a role, by the stager. This leads back to the importance of knowledge and documentation that provides both context and possibilities beyond physical movement.

If you check out the Balanchine Foundation interviews on YouTube, I found that a very common tenet heard is that the steps of a dance are only the very beginning of understanding how to perform a role. Dancers must learn to give up their preconceptions of how to execute a movement in service of finding how technique serves intent and performance. In 1983, Paul Taylor created a "pièce d'occasion" for Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins titled, "Musette" to music by Handel. In a NY Times interview, Miss Farrell is quoted, "Paul's movement is fun." And, "I always try to do exactly what the choreographers I work with want me to do. So I refuse to be bothered about whether the movement in a dance is strange or not." 

Taylor's "Musette", Peter Martins & Suzanne Farrell. Photo: Linda Vartoogian

In closing my musings for today, there is a wonderful interview on The Kael Report which is unfortunately behind a pay wall. But here are a few highlights quotes from Michael Novak, the current Artistic Director of Paul Taylor Dance Company, named by Mr. Taylor. I am guessing that anyone that has learned a Taylor dance from me, might have heard similar sentiments.

Michael Novak. Photo: Travis Caperton

"There is a craft and technique to the Taylor style in terms of line, épaulement and how your body reads from the front. There are tricks of illusion that happen. We definitely look at that and coach it."

"Gesture for Paul was more, I think, than just movement. It was how you communicate. It was how you express yourself. How you make a certain shape and the clarity you give something can have meaning. Whether or not Paul told us what it was about—and he usually didn’t—he wanted that space for a gesture to read."

"When you come and see Paul’s art, you’re seeing that he saw the theatre—the proscenium—as a picture frame. Everything you’re seeing inside it is a moving picture. If you like visual art, that may be a way in."

Quotes from Michael Novak's interview with Harold Finley for The Kael Report, August 2026.

Happy 96th Birthday Paul Taylor!

Paul Taylor's birthday is today! He would have been 96...

A birthday butterfly from Paul

There was a particular kind of privilege that many of us who worked with Paul Taylor enjoyed. It was to receive one of his handmade pieces of art on our birthdays. Often these gifts featured a butterfly, or more, that he had netted himself in eastern Long Island. 

Papilo Brevicanda ♀ (tiger swallowtail) Mattituck, NY, USA '94

Inscribed: "Dear Richard - You are a beaut. Happy Birthday! from yr. admiring bug-catcher"

I also discovered that seven years ago, today was designated "Global Tiger Day", so it seems appropriate to be sharing Paul's Tiger Swallowtail butterfly gift here. 

online graphic from pngtree.com

It is easy to think that being in the dance field means being active and physically moving in a studio or helping dancers work with their bodies. However, the type of work that has been keeping me busy of late is the meticulous, time-consuming notation of dances, professional networking, taking stock of current inventory of data/documentation and what needs to be addressed/expanded and how to do so! Before long, I will not have time to be buried in these tasks, and I will find myself back in studios working with dancers. But the latter does not exist without the former!

Maximizing the use of studio and stage time does not happen spontaneously, and there may come a day when much of the documentation of dances as they are created and re-constructed might live in the domain of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI). But I have not found any real shortcuts to the human preparation needed to create dances and get them in front of audiences near and far.

Dancemaker clip of rehearsal in Broadway studio

As a dancer, studio time for me with Paul Taylor was always in the studios that once existed on Broadway between Prince and Spring Streets in SoHo, NYC. It turned out that my last rehearsals as a performer with the company would be the last ever for the company in those spaces. However, due to a particular scene from the 2000 movie Center Stage, the actual studio was memorialized for audiences beyond the 1997 documentary on Paul Taylor, Dancemaker. What is fascinating to me is how the main Taylor studio was "dressed" to be a more generic dance studio for open classes in NYC. 

Clip from Center Stage of Taylor Studio in SoHo posted on Facebook.

Things in the scene that lived in the Taylor Studio were all of the different chairs that lined the perimeter, and the arm chair with green upholstery was Paul Taylor's chair on which he sat at the front of the room. In addtion, Taylor used to use a reel-to-reel deck for recorded music which is sitting covered next to the column at the back of how the studio was shot. That was our piano in its location by the fire escape, and even our clock is up on the wall. I kind of love that so much of "our" stuff was used in the movie setting.

What we did not have was mirrors! As a general rule, Paul did not want mirrors in his studios, and we always worked facing him sitting with his back to the windowed wall. The neon signs of "Broadway Dance Studio" and the posters were all movie "dressing". The last shot in the above clip was taken from the offices of Scholastic, which occupied the building across the street from our studios.

Creative Domain clip of LES studio

The 2014 documentary on Paul Taylor, Creative Domain, was shot on location in the next studio home of the company in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. And now, we have expanded to having Taylor Studios in midtown Manhattan on W 38th Street as well! 

Paul's company always provided an advanced level modern class each morning that was open for the public to take, and it would typically be taught by current and alumni company members. In my generation, Paul also invited a few of his teachers from Martha Graham to lead the morning classes. However, it was not until we opened the LES studios that daily dance educational programming fully blossomed under Raegan Wood (whose background and pedigree deserves its own blog). Our current offering of studios both in midtown and LES allows us to grow our offerings of classes in many different styles of dance and fitness, in NYC. And our privilege is having the legacy of how Paul Taylor brought together ballet and modern dance in his extensive body of work, carving his own path that continues to influence choreographers and dancers today!