Do we learn to see the world in the way that we learned in school, at home, in our community? In our language communication, it is essential to put each word into its context to fully understand its intended meaning. Somehow delineation of meaning has filtered into the larger consciousness of our humanity where societies often ask for everything to be categorized as though life can be only one thing. Yet I feel strongly that it is the freedom to interpret the non-specific that helps us make sense of a world far too complex to be fully understood. Performative dance is a place where both performers and audiences can explore an experience that can transcend words.  |
| Esplanade rehearsal with Julie Tice, Laura Halzack, Lisa Viola (blur), and me. |
A dance in which to share such an experience is a complex experiment built on foundations of craft, curiousity, feedback and editing. Once again, these are just words and your understanding of them may vary, dependent on your knowledge of my language usage. For today I am going to focus on defining "craft" when it comes to creating and executing choreography.
Communication between any two entities requires a certain amount of common knowledge, and in dance, it usually means being open to the familiarity of dancers and viewers with the use of a human body, music, design, and lighting to convey a message. So if dance is viewed as an Art about communication, the technical bravura and physical contortions emphasized in our training as dancers might be likened to grammar and elocution, tools used to serve the mission of sentient interactions!  |
| Lisa Viola in Taylor's Oh! You Kid |
Simplistically, in ballet we mostly look to pedagogical roots in structures of August Bournonville, Aggripina Vaganova, and Enrico Ceccetti. More contemporary approaches of training falls under less named structures which draw and expand upon these iconic roots, and we speak more of the style of such nationalistic institutions as the Royal Ballet (London), the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish, the Bolshoi, the Cuban and the School of American Ballet.  |
| John Mark Giragosian & Amber Neumann. Photo: Erin Baiano |
In American modern dance annals we often refer to roots in the techniques of Denishawn, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Lester Horton, José Limón, and others who developed their own technical approaches to movement. Today, most contemporary dance forms shy away from naming themselves in order to borrow from the wealth of techniques from which the teachers learned. Paul Taylor actively sought out dancers to work with, whose training and backgrounds varied from each other, and from his own, trusting that performing in the range of his works would build and understanding of his technical expectations and craft. And he actively pushed against the development of a singular technique under his name.  |
With Hernando Cortez, Tom Patrick, Patrick Corbin and me in Taylor's Musical Offering
Photo: Lois Greenfield |
Mastery of technique and craft is honed in usage. Performing masterful dances that call upon technique in service of well crafted communication might then be considered cornerstones of generating new Art by contemporary voices filled with the gravitas of profound roots in cultural and familial soil. It has been common to perceive that a single style or aesthetic perspective marks a choreographer's whole body of work. Yet much like filmmakers and authors and composers and lyricists, choreographers can challenge their audiences to enjoy their output beyond a single genre or style. Over the years, I found that Paul Taylor certainly had an aesthetic perspective on how he created dances, but he also had a broad range of stylistic approaches to movement invention, and an uncanny ability to craft work, that both challenged its performers and engaged its audiences.  |
Me with Francie Huber, Andrew Asnes & Lisa Viola in Taylor's Profiles
Photo: Lois Greenfield |
The choreographers who shape how we perceive dance in the 21st century cannot help but draw from their experiences of the world in which they live and the techniques in which they were trained are . I propose that Paul Taylor is one of the earliest contemporary choreographers from the 20th century whose works continue to teach and support a future for dance as an Art of communication. Without a singular technical approach to training dancers for the Taylor repertoire of dances, the performance of his varied output provides lessons in craft that continues to be effective.  |
| Lisa Viola and me in Taylor's Sunset. Photo: Sean Mahoney |
There is huge benefit for dancers and audiences in having access to performing dances by the great choreographers about whom we mostly read, but can rarely see or dance firsthand. The live performances add to the artistic growth of the performers, and introduces the next generation of audiences to the unique conversation that happens with embodied experiences.  |
Bowing with dancers of Volksoper Wien, violin soloist, and conductor for
Taylor's Dandelion Wine. Photo: Ashley Taylor. |
