Dance: The Tolkien of Choreographers

• Share

(2 of 2)

Mercuric Tidings, a new work set to excerpts from two Schubert symphonies, extends the choreographer's concern with the limits of stamina. For 23 grueling minutes, 1 3 members of the company, swathed in flamingo pink, fly, leap, bounce, swirl and tumble. The activity never pauses, and is so speedy it constitutes a work hazard. Says Katz: "You can't watch it from the wings. They come so close to each somebody." other, Taylor you're may sure finally they'll have kill constructed a piece too difficult for even his kinetic company. The premiere performance last week was un characteristically hesitant, as if pure movement at 1,000 r.p.m. might be fatally attractive.

In the 1981 Arden Court, however, a gift to his exuberant troupe, the mix ture is perfect. Set to William Boyce's 1 8th century music, Court pulses with such energy that its precise choreography blurs. A theatrical, sinewy Elie Chaib and the cool, correct Carolyn Adams unleash steps that leave dancers in the audience breathless. All the Taylor signature movements are concentrated here: performers extend into precarious postures, arms and hands arc into orbit, leaps become new formations in midair. Few works in the current dance repertory dis play so much vibrancy and amplitude. The piece contains a message as well: modern dance has risen from the floor—where it lay in defiance of ballet—to employ an immense treasure of movement and lyricism. To date, Court is the most accomplished announcement of that rebirth. Memo to June Taylor: Move over.

—By J.D. Reed