Talking Points
Here are some things to think about after you've seen Paul Taylor's work. We hope that thinking about these questions will enhance your experience.
Many of Mr. Taylor’s dances draw inspiration from particular moments in American cultural history -- the 1940s world of Company B, the poetry of Walt Whitman in Beloved Renegade. What might future generations gain from these danced chronicles of American life that they can’t get from history books?
What does it mean to say that a body of dance works is “all-American” or “quintessentially American,” as has been said of Mr. Taylor’s repertoire? What qualities make a dance or an art work of any kind “American”?
Darkness and light, the sublime and the profane, are central to the worlds Mr. Taylor creates, often showing up in the same work. How do these elements figure in the Taylor dances you saw? How do they interact in a single dance or on a program of dances?
Dance critic Clive Barnes wrote that "Cunning diversity is the heart and soul of dance repertory," yet asserted that Mr. Taylor's dances also share a common "signature imprint." How would you characterize this "imprint"? What elements or features contribute to it?
“Don’t be a slave to, or a mutilator of, the music,” modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey exhorted aspiring choreographers. How do Mr. Taylor’s dances fulfill this advice? How would you describe the relationship of the movement to the music in his choreography?
Mr. Taylor often makes dances that are not only light-hearted, but truly funny. What makes a dance humorous? What makes humor “work” in danced form? What modes of humor (e.g., dark, slapstick, sardonic) were in the works you saw?