On Dance

...Second, when he retires from the stage he has to be able to make other dancers carry out his vision...

...we are too busy praising him as a choreographer...

...The women's jumpers and the men's slacks and T-shirts (by John Rawlings) keep the mood informal and the action playful...

...Airs demonstrates a deft continuity, wherein Taylor leaves off some of the dancers sometimes still executing their steps and uses those steps to start the next movement...

...In the "Prelude" section Taylor arranges his entire cast into a circular pattern, then treats us to a spoked-wheel spin with the confidence of a conjuror...

...His skill at transition is again evident when the sixth and seventh movements repeat the same dance for Carolyn Adams and Christopher Gillis...

...When two of the men (Elie Chaib and Christopher Gillis) in the cast stretch as "Totem Dolphins" amid a cast of four women, their slowly moving poses catch light in an intriguing way, and when they coordinate a final lift at the center of the women, the up-thrust is timed so smoothly that the lifted dancers' extended arms seem less like stretching limbs than a spout of clear water...

...In this dance for nine Taylor compensates for his not being on stage by creating an ecstatic ensemble piece that allows individuals to shine out in solos and in friendly duets even though the main focus is on group efforts...

...Since he has stopped dancing, he has produced a series of works so formidable that he's given us little time to miss him as a dancer...

...instead, the ease, speed and delicacy of the runs, slides, falls, and catches take you for a ride or a spin...

...But when he goes in Airs for some basic naked ballet steps, like a cabriole back, or an attitude ipaule penche, it can stop the growing line of his dance by drawing his viewer up short with arrested, stunted poses...

...Images, the earlier one, is divided into eight sections for eight dancers and set to Debussy piano selections...

...at its greenest it describes the verdigris deposits at the faucets of the Roman baths...

...Set to a specially commissioned score by Gerald Busby —a haunting piano work that is sometimes insistent, sometimes capricious but always mysterious—this dance for nine is subtitled "Secret Writings for Use In Casting a Spell...

...The title for each part refers to an emblem of ancient art?Totem Birds," "Antique Cortege...

...The remaining eight—constituting the entire repertory of his post-performing career—were designed for other dancers and confirm his unqualified gifts and powers as a choreographer...

...Dust, the later '77 work, is set to Poulenc's "Concert Champetere" (for harpsichord) and uses nine dancers...

...Totem Dolphins," "Oracle," etc.—and Moore has given the dancers costumes that recall ancient Greece...

...The eight works show masterful distinctions as well as idiosyncratic consistencies...

...It marks the first collaboration between Taylor and Gene Moore, the designer of Tiffany windows, with whom Taylor has worked on every subsequent dance...

...Esplanade (1975), a deceptively simple parade and deliriously driven romp to violin concertos by J. S. Bach (in E Major and D Minor), is sure to be a long-time favorite...

...Moore has provided shredded-skirt dresses for the women and fitted harem pants for the men...

...the women have long patchwork skirts and short-sleeved tops that expose their breasts—like the snake priestesses...

...Paul Taylor has passed the test admirably...

...The members of the clan walk, run, jump, and turn, but their cool concentration and frequently fitful articulation are compellingly exotic...

...The overwhelming color scheme is blue trimmed with silver, and it is a most beautiful mineral blue—at its deepest it tells of the blue grotto...

...Two dances from 1977 belong in the first rank of Taylor's theater...

...The costumes are neutral colored bodysuits, each emblazoned with blotches of bright deep colors that resemble painted bruises...

...The central movement has an adagio solo for Susan McGuire, whose yearning arabesques and demure turns all have a consistent wrinkle—one of her arms remains limp and lame...

...Since retiring from dancing in 1974, he has created a number of works for The Paul Taylor Dance Company that include an abundance of significant, wonderful pieces...

...Whatever the case, he has passed what for him was the severest test...

...There is no decor, although Mark Litvin's burnished lighting on the cylorama or scrim bathes the dance in an amber twilight...

...The full-cast "Sunburst" climax reassembles the earlier wheel shape, except this time it shoots and retracts a circular arrangement of arms...

...After most of the cast rolls or tumbles out of this grouping, we are left with the pose of a male crouching atop a spread-eagled female...

...We are given a view of these figures that is so complete and clear, we feel as if we were actually "seeing" the theory and import of ancient representational styl-ization...

...It concerns a strange ritual of unknown purpose: On an open plain lit by a full moon (lighting by Jennifer Tipton), Taylor describes the ceremonies of a primitive society, simultaneously evoking the bestial forms that lurk in the inhabitants' natures...

...The material asks Taylor to do something he almost never does —scream out the obvious...

...Moore's designs include a twisted hank of black fabric hanging down from the flies as a large knot, some slack cloths that have holes in them, and lengths of cord that get introduced as entrails and end up as brandished streamers...

...Perhaps Taylor is testing his dancers, perhaps his audience...

...The final position the cast strikes as the music's energies subside is a breathtaking Taylor original: McGuire stands in front of her fellow-dancers in an outstretched tendu while they all shrivel behind her in graduating degrees of uprightness and stretch...

...To begin with, while he is performing the knowledge that he also is creating a part for himself provides a spark of inspiration...

...Nonetheless, I would like to see some of the academic, strict, balletic moves of these premiere performances smoothed out...

...THE CHOREOGRAPHER'S tWO latest pieces proved less than masterpieces, however...

...The scenario involves a virgin, her lecherous father, a swain, a mountebank, a snake dancer, a "General Havoc" (played as a travesty part), and a nun, "Good Sister Frigid...

...The Italianate theater is a subject I would like to see Taylor explore, but with any guide other than Ludlam...

...Set to various pieces by Handel, it alternates adagio with allegro passages (nine movements in all...

...True, the monumental, cherubic presence his own performances produced will probably never be reclaimed...

...the figures (the women have temporarily removed their skirts) move in careful sliding, striding steps —the legato opening of their legs in opposition to their extending lengthening arms, as they maintain a constant frontal angle to their torsos...

...The men are dressed in gold-trimmed black trunks and head bands—like acrobats and bull-dancers...

...There is no stress here on posture or punctuation...

...In "Cortege,'/ we watch the dancers pass in front of a scrim against the wall...

...The score, orchestrated by Donald York, is given as "Golden Oldies of the Renaissance...

...Taylor continues to let his audience alternately chuckle and shudder as he jostles the action from pitter-patter runs to hobbling shuffles...

...Once she is joined by the others in the cast, who are playing blind, we have a procession of the lame leading the blind...

...When Taylor is at the height of his powers he can make a simple left/right/left walking sequence seem more ecstatic and marvelous than many other choreographers' most tricksy enchatnemments...

...It is as kinky as Images is creamy...

...The structure is simple and regular...

...Taylor's participation in such a silly enterprise forces him into equally silly corners, and even Moore's designs—harsh colored polyester sheets and pillow cases strung on crisscrossing clotheslines, are a near total miss...

...Taking his cue from Poulenc's lyrical and frenzied contrasts, Taylor has made a dance that goes from giddy to ghoulish...

...Airs, Taylor's most recent work, has a soothing aqueous atmosphere...

...Runes (1976) shows another facet of ensemble-Taylor...

...The costumes, in keeping with the ambiguities of the scene, are earth brown tights and leotards (for the women) trimmed with leather halters and fur swatches...

...Aphrodisiamania, subtitled "A Macaronic Imbroglio After Commedia Dell'Arte," was done in collaboration with Charles Ludlam and trades on that writer's self-indulgent wallowing in the raunchy and irreverent...

...A sort of primitive esthetic is achieved, which is due more to Taylor's uncomplicated choreography than to his wholesale invention of actions...

...Despite the fact that it is a graphically unique dance with a backfall, a cartwheel and a lift of Adams onto Gillis' thigh, Taylor's modulation of the moves, first in allegro and then in adagio, makes us less aware of the problematic elements than of the musical beauty here...

...They are credited to George Tacit, the name I believe Taylor uses when he designs his own outfits, and reflect the careful attention to detail and cohesion of elements so noteworthy in his scheme of things...

...but as if to prevent his audience from dwelling on those memories, only two of the 10 dances in the company's recent three-week New York season contained roles Taylor originally created for himself...

...And all this is especially true if the person in question heads an ensemble bearing his name, because his absence can produce an irreparable tear in the company's image...