Taylor’s choreography always hits the heart

There's an attractive, melancholy quality associated with much of choreographer Paul Taylor's work, and Saturday's New York Stage & Beyond program was a reminder of how you don't need to be an aficionado to strongly respond to the man's magic.

The 77-year-old Long Island resident is probably best known to the general public for the Oscar-nominated "Dancemaker," a 1998 Paul Diamond documentary that took us behind the scenes of rehearsals. But film has never been able to capture the magic of stage dance, and seeing Paul Taylor's company live is the only way to really see Paul Taylor.

The current tour, made up of three pieces created in a span of 31 years, suggests the legendary artist has grown more somber with the passage of time.

The opening of 1976's "Cloven Kingdom" was a playful look at man as a social animal. "Civilized" men in black tuxes and women in muted, solid-colored gowns grew less and less respectable as their behavior gave way to convulsions, conflicts and silver headpieces reflecting threatening beams of light. Set to John Herbert McDowell's thundering arrangements of Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Cowell and Malloy Miller, the diversity in movement by the 12 performers brought to mind Martha Graham squats, Nijinsky leaps, Victor Herbert optimism, traditional ballroom and even Stanley Kubrick-isms.

But while "Cloven" has its dark underbelly, "Lines of Loss" (2007) is, as you'd guess from the title, downbeat from the word go. With the help of six composers from half-a-dozen centuries, the cast of 11 offered a series of reactions to different stages of grief and alienation.

The finale, 2002's "Promethean Fire," suggested, with help from Bach, a structure brimming with life that comes crashing down. The pile of bodies (in the form of 16 dancers) slowly, carefully revives itself, and the world seems to start anew. It's no surprise that critics have interpreted the work as a reaction to the World Trade Center disaster.

The evening's themes were greatly enhanced by the superb lighting of Jennifer Tipton that often lent a Kafka-like energy to Taylor's eeriness.

The choreographer obviously demands a lot from his troupe in precision and versatility. But the appeal to noneducated fans like me is his ability to hit the heart. You never feel Taylor is all about technique, or dazzle, or even movement. He seems to know as much about people as anything else.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.