Choreographic and Technical Influences

“There are infinite possibilities in dance and most of them have yet to be tried. The surface has just been scratched. I wish I could come back in a hundred years to see what’s happened.”

-Paul Taylor

           

          These words by Paul Taylor sparked a thought of how modern dance, not even one hundred years ago, has shaped everything that we know in it today.  Modern contemporaries such as Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Jose Limon, Doris Humphery, and many others are just such artists that created this new and experimental world of modern dance.  They challenged the previous techniques, and each spinning new ideas, techniques, and movement qualities onto themselves and their dancers in order to make some sort of artist connection with anyone willing to grasp to it.  Paul Taylor is also one such artist that was influenced by his past teachers, but also took what they gave him and molded it to himself creating an entirely new entity unique to him. 

            Paul Taylor began dancing at Syracuse University in 1952, and then later began seriously studying at the Juilliard School in New York City.  His movement quality was characterized primarily as athletic and energetic.  His first professional debut was made in 1953 as a dancer in Merce Cunningham’s company, one of Taylor’s greatest influences.  I feel Cunningham’s influence on Taylor’s work and technique stems from his emphasis on athletic movement and a strong ballet background.  Taylor’s movement is characterized by either strong, aggressive physicality, or by basic pedestrian movement.  I also feel his sense of structure in dance and movement creation is of Cunningham’s influence.  Although Taylor does not create his choreography with chance as Cunningham did, there is however a sense of structure to how the piece develops, always having a purpose and most of them created as a narrative with a defined beginning, middle, and end.        

Then in 1955 he became a soloist in Martha Graham’s company.  Although he worked extensively in her school and company, Taylor’s movement is not a strong reflection of Graham’s focus of the contraction and also her extreme thematic and movement intensity.   Graham’s core contraction is seen in Taylor’s choreography, but is definitely not as prevalent as it was in her work.  He also directs his themes of his choreographic creations away from Graham’s extreme intensity.  Although some of his works are intense such as Promethean Fire and Scudorama there is at least a sense of recovery and gentleness throughout, whereas it is not usual for Graham technique. 

          Taylor also had the opportunity of working with ballet artist, George Balanchine in 1959.  With his background with Merce Cunningham, Taylor has had the opportunity to focus on ballet technique.  This gave him the step up when working with Balanchine.  I feel that dancing in Balanchine’s company and also collaborating with him has influenced his use of ballet technique in his choreography.  This can be. 

       Paul Taylor has collaborated with artists of both design and music in order to make his works a success.  Four such artists include Alex Katz, Santo Loquasto, Robert Rauschenburg, and John Rawlings.  Katz was a painter and for Paul Taylor, a set designer.  He has created designs for works such as Sunset, Lost, Found and Lost, Diggity, Polaris, and Last Look.  Simplifying an image and making it cartoon-like characterize his work.  Loquasto is featured in many of Taylor’s works such as Brief Encounters, Changes, Black Tuesday, Lines of Loss, Company B, and Promethean Fire, among many others.  Rauschenburg his one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century, he had the opportunity of collaborating with artists such as John Cage and Merce Cunningham, who are also revolutionary.  His work is characterized by the basic imagery of common objects.  He also designed costumes.  His work can be seen in Taylor’s work such as Three Epitaphs and All, Tracer, Images and Reflections, and Seven New Dances: Opportunity.  And finally, Rawlings, a costume designer and photographer collaborated with Taylor on works such as The Rehearsal, Cloven Kingdom, Esplande, and Public Domain.       

Conversation with Paul Taylor

Paul Taylor discusses challenges and his past history as a modern dance choreographer with one of his previous dancers, Patrick Corbin.  He provides inspiration and a mindset that a choreographer is required to posess in order to succeed in the dance world.  He also describes what sets him apart from dancers and choreographers before him.  

Interview with Paul Taylor

 In this interview with Lindsey Dreyer from February 28, 2008, Taylor describes his work and his inspirations for his movement choices throughout his life work over his many years as modern dance choreographer.  He also discusses his plans for that upcoming performing season with his company.    

Brief Encounters

Dust

Prime Numbers

Esplande

Arden Court

Paul Taylor Biography

       Paul Taylor was born June 29, 1930 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.  He attended Syracuse University in New York in the 1940s.  In college he earned scholarships for his painting and swimming talents.  When he arrived at the University, it was then that he began to study dance.  Two years after beginning his training, contemporaries such as Martha Graham, Doris Humphery, and Jose Limon were intrigued by his technique, presence, and unique approach to movement.  It was then that he was invited to be a dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company.  It was at this point that Taylor’s professional career took wing.  He performed in works such as “Clytemnestra” (1958), “Alcestis” (1960) and “Phaedra” (1962).  He also was chosen to work with others such as Merce Cunningham, Charles Weidman, and George Balanchine.  In 1954, Taylor decided to work independently and began his own dance company in New York, New York where he made his greatest contributions to the modern dance world. 

            In the mid-fifties Taylor’s talents began to emerge.  He became friends and collaborators with the painters Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Taylor shared their desire to bring the vernacular, or conventional aspects of ordinary life into the arts. Using gestures and movements from the street, Taylor’s work reflects the beauty and sadness of society. In a number of his early pieces, Taylor composed dances of pedestrian movements, such as checking a watch or waiting for a bus. Taylor felt that once the movement is seen separated from their context, one can recognize the richness of these everyday movements. For Taylor, a dance is the first step in returning the viewer to the street more aware of the beauty in the simple movements he or she sees every day. 

         From the 1950s to the 1970s he performed some of the most exciting and inventive dances of the time.  He was actually given the title “naughty boy of dance” because of his cutting edge work.  This work included modern music, mocking of public figures, and even incest and rape.  His experimental work was Taylor’s way he broke away from conventionality and was simply a starting-off point for further elaboration of this idea. His later pieces combine this same purity and connection of performance with ballet. Among the best known of these are “Three Epitaphs” (1956), “Orbs” (1966), “The Book of Beasts” (1971), and “Airs” (1978). His “Aureole” (1962) is one of the most highly respected dance works of the time for its grace and technical difficulty. It is Taylor’s combination of the subtlety of ballet with the spontaneity of everyday gesture that has made him such a powerful force in modern dance.  In 1974, Taylor retired his performance body and dedicated to choreography.  It was then that he added to his already created works, making a total of 134 dances.  Among them include Esplanade, Cloven Kingdom, Dust, Airs, Mercuric Tidings, Last Look, Musical Offering, Speaking in Tongues, Company B, Eventide, Black Tuesday, Promethean Fire, and Beloved Renegade.

            For all of his contributions to the dance world, Taylor has been honored through many awards, some of which include the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1993, the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1995 and was named one of 50 prominent Americans honored in recognition of their outstanding achievement by the Library of Congress’s Office of Scholarly Programs. He is also the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from many honorary colleges such as California Institute for the arts, Duke University, and the Julliard School. Awards for lifetime achievement include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, also known as the “genius award,” and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award.  Although no longer dancing, Taylor still is a thriving impact among modern dance where his main focus is on his company and continuing works.