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.