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.