IU Dance Gala: Part 2 (Cody)

"The true," whatever that means...

The first piece, Esplanade, began with physical forms that reminded me of 17th or 18th century court dancing, and the musical accompaniment, Bach, certainly helped to set that stage. With this sort of formal context in place, the reoccurring transgressive breaks, a single dancer running around a formal tableau, the physically wrenching shudders of a dancer on the floor, etc., were striking. (Dorothy)

Paul Taylor claims that his inspiration for writing Esplanade came from watching a young girl run to catch a bus on a beautiful day. According to the dramaturgical notes archived by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, much like his contemporaries in the visual art world such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg were using found objects to create art, Taylor was using “found movements” and quotidian gesture to re-create American dance. (Sara)

The meaningful

Overall, while the message was glaring at times and the presentation perhaps a bit too overt, ["Rite of Summer"] had a strong narrative arc that seemed to work both in conversation with and against the movements of the dancers. The varying levels of tension between the narrative and the dance ultimately produced a hauntingly beautiful performance that seemed out of place with the energy of the other three pieces. (Whitney)

Decentering the significance of the dancers’ skills and physical virtuosity, Taylor choreographs a dance that is about movement itself and the beauty of “everyday” movements. [. . .] In ["Esplanade"] dance is about the many different ways a body can move and interact with other bodies more than it is about a each particular dancer’s virtuosity. (Courtney)

I was particularly affected by the juxtaposition of joy and misery throughout the evening’s performances. For example, the opening was joyous: happy bodies frolicking across and around the stage in what appeared to be an updated quadrille. The second movement was a sudden change – an exploration of destructive isolation. The dancers reached, but their inability to actually touch each other was painful to watch. The dancers emphasized their shoulder blades and collapsed their cores, dragging themselves to center stage where they revolved in a starving, circling herd.  The final two movements, featuring ecstatic leaps and flirtation, were each shaded by this indelible image of suffering. (Jennifer)