TAYLOR COMPANY COMMISSIONS
Only the Lonely (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2019)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Kyle Abraham Music: Shirley Horn Costumes: Karen Young Lighting: Dan Scully Date First Performed: October 30, 2019 |
all at once (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2019)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Pam Tanowitz Music: Johann Sebastian Bach Violin Concerto in A Minor & Oboe Sonata in G Minor Costumes: Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme Lighting: Jennifer Tipton Date First Performed: June 7, 2019 |
Rewilding (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2019)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Margie Gillis Music: Johann Sebastian Bach The Art of Fugue, Movements 3, 12 & 17 Costumes: Santo Loquasto Lighting: Jennifer Tipton Date First Performed: June 8, 2019 |
The Beauty in Gray (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2018)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Bryan Arias Music: Nico Muhly and Ólafur Arnalds (Nils Frahm rework) Costumes: Carljin Petermeijer Lighting: James F. Ingalls Date First Performed: March 8, 2018 |
Half Life (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2018)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Doug Varone Music: Music by Julia Wolfe Date First Performed: March 10, 2018 |
Continuum (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2017)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Lila York Music: Recomposed by Max Richter (based on Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”) Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Set and Costume Design: Santo Loquasto Date First Performed: February 11, 2017 |
The Weight of Smoke (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2016)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Doug Elkins in collaboration with the PTDC dancers Assisted by: Carolyn Cryer Original sound score: Justin Levine and Matt Stine Additional music: George Frideric Handel Costumes: Karen Young Lighting: James F. Ingalls Date First Performed: March 17, 2016 Notes: “Marvelously fresh vitality. Not only did [the] closing section give us a view of Mr. Elkins at his liveliest — with strong elements of club/disco dancing and impish comedy, rhythmically exuberant — but it [shows] these remarkable dancers… in new lights. Daft, engaging, it releases the dancers’ high spirits as well as Mr. Elkins’s naughtiness.” – Alastair Macaulay, New York Times |
Rush Hour (Commissioned by PTAMD in 2016)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Larry Keigwin Assisted by: Jaclyn Walsh Music: Adam Crystal Costumes: Fritz Masten Lighting: Clifton Taylor Date First Performed: March 16, 2016 Notes: “The audience rose to its feet to cheer Keigwin’s Rush Hour, and no wonder. The brilliantly designed work gets your pulse racing. Keigwin deploys these superb dancers to convey the pressure and speed of city rush hour” – Deborah Jowitt, DanceBeat |
HISTORIC MODERN MASTERWORKS
Dances of Isadora (Presented by PTAMD in 2018)
Performed by: Sara Mearns Choreographer: Isadora Duncan Music: Chopin, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Scriabin, and Strauss Artistic Director: Lori Belilove, The Isadora Duncan Dance Company |
Set and Reset (Presented by PTAMD in 2018)
Performed by: Trisha Brown Dance Company Choreographer: Trisha Brown Music: Laurie Anderson, “Long Time No See” Set and Costume Design: Robert Rauschenberg Lighting Design: Beverly Emmons with Robert Rauschenberg World Premiere: October 20, 1983 |
Summerspace (Presented by PTAMD in 2017)
Performed by: Lyon Opera Ballet Choreographer: Merce Cunningham Music: Ixion Set and Costumes: Robert Rauschenberg Lighting: Ronald Bates Date First Performed: August 17, 1958 Notes: “The summer part of the title came after the dance was finished, but the notion of space was always present. I fumbled around with steps and written notes about steps, as I often do, but the principal momentum was a concern for steps that carry one though a space, and not only into it, like the passage of birds, stopping for moments on the ground and then going on, or automobiles more relentlessly throbbing along turnpikes and under and over cloverleaves. This led to the idea of using kinds of movement that would be continuous, and carry the dancers into the playing area and out of it.” – Merce Cunningham |
Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (Presented by PTAMD in 2016)
Performed by: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company Choreographer: Donald McKayle Music: Traditional Music Arranged by Robert DeCormier and Milton Okun From the Collection of John and Allen Lomax Costumes: Domingo A. Rodriguez, Recreated for DCDC by Ayn Wood Lighting: John Rensel Date First Performed: 1959: DCDC premiere; 1987 Notes: “[An] affecting production… Set to traditional songs, the dance depicts the suffering of a rural chain gang at the men’s dreams of succor in the form of a single woman who takes on the guise of mother, sweetheart, and wife.” – Tobi Tobias, New York Magazine |
Diversion of Angels (Presented by PTAMD in 2016)
Performed by: Paul Taylor Dance Company Choreographer: Martha Graham Reconstucted by: Blakeley White-McGuire and Tadej Brdnik Rehearsal Director: Linda Hodes Music: Norman Dello Joio Costumes: Martha Graham Lighting: Jean Rosenthal adapted by Jennifer Tipton (2016) Date First Performed: 1948 Notes: “The lyrical side of love is Miss Graham’s subject here. And yet for all its pure-dance surface, there is always a note of passion…” – Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times |
Rite of Spring (Presented by PTAMD in 2015)
Performed by: Shen Wei Dance Arts Choreographer: Shen Wei Music: Igor Stravinsky, Four-Hand Piano Version recorded by Fazil Say Concept, Costumes & Set: Shen Wei Lighting: David Ferri Date First Performed: 2003 Notes: “When I first heard Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in China in 1989, I was enthralled by the score’s rich, evocative texture. Over the next twelve years, I continued to develop a creative interest in the piece, finally beginning in-depth research on the music in early 2001. The Stravinsky score is constructed with both technical complexity and narrative passion. After listening closely to the score, I investigated movement concepts and structural principles that resonated with the quality found in the music.” – Shen Wei |
Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor (Presented by PTAMD in 2015)
Performed by: Limón Dance Company Choreographer: Doris Humphrey Staging and Direction by: Jennifer Scanlon Music: Johann Sebastian Bach Costumes: Pauline Lawrence Lighting: Brandon Stirling Baker after original concepts by Doris Humphrey Date First Performed: 1938 Notes: A Passacaglia, “a dance through the streets,” is of medieval Italian origin, and was a processional celebration. In the music, the minor melody, according to the traditional Passacaglia form, insistently repeating from beginning to end, seems to say “How can man be saved and be content in a world of infinite despair?” And in the magnificent fugue which concludes the dance the answer seems to mean “Be saved by love and courage.”…The dance was inspired by the need for love, tolerance and nobility in a world given more and more to the denial of these things.” – Doris Humphrey |