Dance St. Louis brought the Paul Taylor Dance Company to the Touhill Performing Arts Center stage to debut a new work by the legendary choreographer.
The world premiere was part of a dance program Friday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. The program was presented again on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Choreographer Paul Taylor is a legend of modern dance, who has created dance works on the cutting edge since the 1950s.
Famous for shocking audiences and critics alike with his unrelentingly modern works, he has satirized American icons in the '60s, put incest on stage in the '70s, and tackled subjects such as intimacy between men at war in the '80s and religious extremism in the '90s.
While Taylor is known for the startling originality of his dances, he has often gone the unexpected route in music, setting modern dance to baroque music.
Other musical experiments used ragtime, reggae, tango and Tin Pan Alley. Some dances were set to loon calls, elevator music and time and temperature announcements.
This acclaimed bad boy of dance is not only still actively creating new works but attended the Touhill's world premiere of his new work, "Beloved Renegade," inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."
The Friday evening program opened with "Esplanade (1975)," a lively dance set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Small groups of dancers, dressed in simple pale colored dresses or plain light-colored jeans, skipped and jumped across the stage, like very young teens with one foot in childhood.
The dances varied in pace with the music, ranging from fluidly romantic to frenetically playful.
Constant crisscrossing of the stage, with breathtaking leaps, and tumbles with remarkable acrobatic ability marked the dance.
The overall effect was casual fun, a kind of playful abandon with touches of folk dance. In fact, acrobatic athleticism was a hallmark of all three dances in the evening's program.
Each dance challenged the limits of what bodies could do. The whole program was danced by a company of only seventeen dancers.
The second dance, "Scudorama (1963)," was as surreal and modern as the first dance was cozy and playful.
Beneath backdrop that looked like a sky filled with puffy white clouds, a series of surreal creatures seemed to scurry across the stage, with one lone figure of a man in suit coat who seemed to be awakening on a beach.
The scene shifted as dancers in tight-fitting black and white outfits strutted about the stage. In the final scene, dancers in flowing robes joined the wild, animal dance on stage.
This piece was performed to a modern composition created for it but as the audience was told in the talk before the show, the dancers rehearse to Stravinsky's "Firebird," and that influence lingers in the performance
"Beloved Renegade" the piece premiering at the Touhill, was the dance most close to ballet, although still clearly modern dance. Set to the music of Francis Poulenc's "Gloria" it was inspired by quotes from Walt Whitman, detailed in the program notes. This dance was lyric and graceful, performed on a stage filled with light and shadow, with dancers in simple single color costumes. The effect was remarkably uplifting and hauntingly lovely.
The Paul Taylor Dance Company offered a delightful evening filled originality, graceful movement and gravity-defying strength. It was pure enjoyment.
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