Taylor at PS/21: Odd but still engaging

Jada Pearlman was fiery in Paul Taylor Dance Company's staging of Ulysses Dove's "Vespers" at PS/21 Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham. (Photo by Whitney Brown)

While the reflection is always good – it gets complicated when you are a performing arts organization. How does one stage a legacy work without it appearing irrelevant or dated.
 
Certainly, that is a question the Paul Taylor Dance Company likely considered in its program this week at PS/21 Center for Contemporary Performing Arts. The showcase, which in years past blended the late Taylor’s unique blend of social commentary with uplifting dance, reached back nearly 70 years to present his earliest works. And while it was interesting to see and important to preserve – for posterity sake – I’m not sure the works hold up on today’s scrutiny.
 
At the time of their creation, “3 Epitaphs” in 1956 and “Tablet” in 1960, were ground-breaking. Much about them: their costumes (“3 Epitaphs” had designs by Robert Rauschenberg): their music, New Orleans jazz in “3 Epitaphs” and a commissioned composition by composer David Hollister; and their movement – almost robotic — was a freeing departure from Taylor’s emotive and mystical mentor Martha Graham.
 
Seeing them together on Thursday night at the open-air theater in Chatham was instructive, but not exactly enjoyable. Simply put, they lack the depth of Taylor’s later works that were glorious with full-out dancing.
 
The evening opened on a high note with a 1999 work "Cascade." Designed around selected Bach “Concertos for Piano and Orchestra," this beautiful work didn’t bother skimming along the darker rim of life, as Taylor was wont to do, but rather just celebrated the joy of the music with choreographic display that echoed across the theater.
 
The men, Devon Louis in particular, stood out for their rushing movement that would reverberate from one dancer to the next. The duet with Jessica Ferretti and Louis glowed as each responded to the other in kind, creating an environment where each movement garnered enough respect to be mirrored. It was one of those dances that the audience and the dancers couldn’t help smiling throughout. The joy pulsated.
 
Since Taylor died in 2018, the company’s artistic aims have shifted to welcome in works by other choreographers. And they have found a winner in Ulysses Dove’s dramatic “Vespers.” This 1986 dance with an all-female cast in black is intense and keeps eyes glued to every gesture. To an exuberant and tenacious drum solo, “Quorum” by Mikel Rouse, six bend and fall from chairs as if being convicted of some religious infraction.
 
"Vespers" is also fast with dancers orbiting a small world, in a space defined by severe lighting design by William Grant III. It’s also in a potent cocktail of redemption seekers motivated by fear.

And despite the older works falling into the odd, but interesting category, the program was pure Taylor -- engaging to the end.

This program will be repeated at 8 p.m. on Saturday night.