Aspen – To call Paul Taylor an American treasure is hardly an exaggeration.
The career of the 74-year-old choreographer and former dancer spans much of the history of the modern dance, and few people have done more to champion and shape this underappreciated and sometimes misunderstood art form.
Taylor performed with other companies, including the Martha Graham Dance Company. But he wanted to go his own way almost from the beginning. That’s exactly what he did in 1954, when he created his first piece and found dancers to stage it.
His company – now internationally renowned with appearances in 6o countries and 450 cities – is marking its 50th anniversary with visits to every state by either it or the choreographer’s smaller outreach ensemble, Taylor 2.
The 17-member Paul Taylor Dance Company’s sold-out performance Thursday evening in the Aspen District Theatre began a three-day run, the troupe’s only Colorado appearance in its anniversary tour.
The program kicked off this summer’s Aspen Dance Festival, which continues through Aug. 6 and includes the participation of such other first-rate companies as the Trey McIntyre Project, Complexions and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the event’s organizer.
As might be expected during this anniversary celebration, the Taylor company is reviving highlights from its past. But it is also focusing on the here and now, with pieces on Thursday’s lineup from the last four years.
The ensemble is anything but a museum enshrining Taylor’s glorious past. The choreographer has created more than 120 works in his long career and remains active as ever, using his studio as a laboratory and his dancers as collaborators.
Taylor is most widely known for works such as his 1975 classic, “Esplanade,” an exuberant and in many ways simple romp that revels in the pure joy and beauty of movement.
Thursday evening’s audience got a good look at that side of the choreographer during the program’s culminating selection, “Black Tuesday” (2001), a series of eight numbers set to vintage recordings of songs from the Great Depression.
Artfully combining Fred Astaire-style soft shoe with popular period dances, such as the Charleston, and adding a few touches of his own, Taylor has crafted a crowd-pleasing, high-spirited work that superbly showcases his supremely talented and versatile company.
Highlights included a terrific duet featuring Sean Mahoney and Nathaniel Keuter, who looked like they just stepped out of an MGM musical, and a high-energy, high-stepping solo by Lisa Viola.
Taylor probably could easily have filled the whole evening with such light, upbeat fare. To his credit, he opted for a more diverse and challenging program that showed off other, often less recognized sides of his choreography.
Offering a much darker tone was “Dante Variations” (2004) in which, as the title suggests, the 10 dancers seemed to inhabit some kind of hell. It’s as if they are drugged and unable to fully understand what is happening to them.
One woman (Amy Young), for example, is bent over, her arms dangling, barely able to stand. She eventually collapses, but three men can’t figure out how to remove her body. Another woman (Annmaria Mazzini) frantically tries to remove the rope binding her hands but can’t.
Opening the program was a revival of “Cloven Kingdom” (1976), a fascinating if odd ensemble work set to a score where baroque music is randomly and often jarringly intercut with contemporary percussion music by Malloy Miller.
Taylor responds with equivalently clashing movement styles and other, sometimes bizarre juxtapositions. Highlighting the piece is a quartet of four men in incongruous tuxedos doing subverted pas de quatre, a kind of cheerleading pyramid and animal-like movements.
Local dance fans who were unable to get to Aspen last weekend will have another opportunity to see the choreographer’s work. The Colorado Ballet will present his masterful “Company B” (1991) as part of a March 4-April 1, 2006 program.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
Aspen Dance Festival
PERFORMANCES BY AN ARRAY OF COMPANIES|Aspen District Theatre, Aspen Elementary School, Maroon Creek Road, Aspen; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet; 8 p.m. July 28-30, Complexions; 8 p.m. Aug. 2, Trey McIntyre Project, and 8 p.m. Aug. 5 and 6, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.|$20-$58|970-925-6098 or aspensantafe.com.
