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'.