Paul Taylor Company Lincoln Center season/Eran Bugge

[nysusan]

The Paul Taylor company is appearing at Lincoln Center 10/31 - 11/5, right after ABT.

 

If there are any Eran Bugge fans out there - I just read that this will be her last Lincoln Center season. Tickets start at $15

[dirac]

Thanks, nysusan. Look forward to reading reports from anyone who sees the performances!

[Royal Blue]

The Paul Taylor Dance Company, of course, experienced a remarkable turnover between 2018 and 2022. Those five dancers who retired after (or soon after?) the company's 2019 Lincoln Center Season, including Robert Kleinendorst whom I failed to mention in a post on another thread because he remained in the background, had fortuitously singular timing. With the impending retirement of Eran Bugge, the five newest members back in 2018 will suddenly become the veterans of the company. 

Thanks to nysusan for the important information provided. I would have attended anyway because of my ever-growing fondness for this company's repertoire and dancers, but I definitely appreciated knowing about Bugge since her sprightly dancing delighted me and her evocative mien led at times to profound reflection. Fortunately, she hung in there during the darkest days of the pandemic, which provided the opportunity to see her dance some splendid roles during The Paul Taylor Dance Company's appearance at The Joyce Theater in June 2022 and its Lincoln Center 2022 and 2023 seasons. Among those roles were humorous ones in Diggity and Black Tuesday and serious ones in Sunset, Last Look, and Eventide. 

[Royal Blue]

Created by Paul Taylor in the midst of the stock market's dot-com bubble woes and a few months before the terrorist attacks, Black Tuesday premiered in April 2001. A dance work set during the Great Depression to popular songs from the 1930s somehow did not appear inviting when glancing at the programs of upcoming performances a few years ago. Nevertheless, my concerns were immediately allayed when I finally saw the work in 2019. Most significantly, the music is catchy and, at times, quite moving. Six of the eight songs are surprisingly upbeat, while two are intensely poignant. Just as vitally, however, the twilit lighting, the redolent backdrops, and the period costumes combine with the music and Taylor's engaging choreography to impart authenticity and an autumnal beauty to the work. With its masterful combination of light and dark elements, Black Tuesday has the capacity to stir deep emotions and bring forth the paradoxes and ironies intrinsic to this great nation, to history, to civilization, to art, and to life to the forefront of consciousness.

Those substantial moments of Black Tuesday in which robust gaiety is displayed in the dancing are not merely superficially attractive, but indicative of the resilience of the American people and the human capability to experience pleasure in the midst of difficult circumstances. Still, the choreography set to the haunting "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is what gives the work its requisite verisimilitude and depth. The latter is heard during the last segment of Black Tuesday, which ends on a note of a powerful solemnity appropriate to the subject. In this season's performances, the superb Alex Clayton danced the main role with distinctive explosiveness. Notably, the backdrop changes as the song plays, starkly reminding us of the ultimate background to all earthly endeavors.

All the music was unfamiliar and pleasantly surprised me back in 2019, none more so than the riveting song for the work's sixth segment. To the heartrending music and lyrics of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", a woman of the night dances passionately before being approached by five men emerging from the wing. In one of the most harrowing and impactful yet truthful moments in the field of dance, they proceed to briefly toss her around, dump her like a rug on the ground, and exit the stage. This episode instantly reminded me of the discussion sparked by a similar occurrence in Ratmansky's Odesa, which coincidentally will be revived by New York City Ballet this winter. Unfortunately, not only is this entire segment of Black Tuesday disturbingly effective in mirroring reality, but it also works on a symbolic level. All human beings at some point encounter disappointment in their aspirations, and are forced to re-examine their dreams. Beyond that, however, our modern world is fast-paced, highly technological, crowded, super eventful. A vast array of economic, political, social, scientific, and cultural forces at play affect all our lives in ways we are dimly aware of, let alone fully understand. Not to mention those forces that are unknowable. Every human being on the planet is one way or another "tossed around" like that hapless woman. This year, Maria Ambrose added "gigolette" to the list of major roles she has performed commendably since joining the company four and a half years ago. 

Clearly, I was unaware that Christina Lynch Markham is also retiring from the company. Despite her unconventional body type, she had her moments (including in Fibers at the Joyce) and matched the athleticism and enthusiasm of her colleagues in performing the Taylor repertoire. Both Lynch Markham and Eran Bugge took their Lincoln Center farewell bows on Sunday afternoon, after another joyous performance of Esplanade.