Taylor 2 returns for residency, public events, performances

Acclaimed for performing with all the daredevil energy, supple skill, and finesse of its renowned parent, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Taylor 2 will return to Skidmore College for its second summer residency May 31?June 20.

Described by The New York Times as ?one of the most vital and accomplished of second troupes in New York City,? the junior troupe made its first Skidmore appearance in 1995, shortly after it was first formed to bring Taylor?s choreography to spaces too small to accommodate the senior company. Since then, Taylor 2 has won praise in its own right for its sparkling performances of classic Taylor works. ?Don?t think of it as a farm team,? The Berkshire Eagle said. ?Think of it as Taylor Too.?
 
While at Skidmore, the six dancers will conduct an intensive three-week workshop for intermediate and advanced-level pre-professional dancers. The company will also present an array of public events, including lecture-demonstrations, films, and discussions. Highlights will include public performances from both Taylor 2 and the internationally lauded main company.
 
Public events of the residency are free and open to the public, except where otherwise noted.  (Call 518-580-5595 for more information.) The events include the following:
 
?A performance presented by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, starting at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The program will include the 1982 classic, Mercuric Tidings, as well as two newly premiered works, Changes and Beloved Renegade. For tickets, call SPAC at 518-584-9330.  The performance will also be among the headline events of the 2009 SaratogaArtsFest, the community-wide festival of visual, literary, and performing arts.  ArtsFest passholders receive a discount on the ticket price; for details, click here.           
?A Family Dance Performance presented by Taylor 2 at 2:30 p.m., Saturday, June 13, at the National Museum of Dance on South Broadway in Saratoga Springs. (Call 518-580-5595 for more information.) The program will include Taylor repertory favorites Airs, 3 Epitaphs, Lento Duet, and Company B. Admission with SaratogaArtsFest pass; for details, click here. 
?Two film nights, both starting at 8 p.m. on Monday nights June 1 and 15 in the College?s Dance Theater.  June 1 will feature Dancemaker, considered one of the best dance documentaries of all time. The Wrecker?s Ball (June 15) features Taylor dances choreographed to pop music of the 1950s and ?60s. Discussions will follow both films.
?Two lecture-demonstrations (Wednesdays June 3 and 17) and an ?educational rehearsal?  (Wednesday, June 10), all starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Dance Theater.
?  A student showing presented by the residency?s 32 workshop dancers will begin at 2 p.m. Friday, June 19, in the Dance Theater.

Click here to read Wendy Liberatore?s June 11 advance in The Daily Gazette.

About Paul Taylor and company
 
In the 1950s, the young dancer/choreographer was nicknamed the ?naughty boy? of dance by none other than Martha Graham. A scholarship swimmer and student of art at Syracuse University in the late 1940s, Taylor came late to dance; he was 23 when his performances at the American Dance Festival attracted the notice of Graham, Jos Lim n, Charles Weidman, and Doris Humphrey.  He danced in the companies of Graham, Merce Cunningham, and George Balanchine before founding his own troupe in 1954.

In the decades since then, Taylor made 128 works for his own dancers and for ballet and modern dance companies around the world, and trained such famed dancer/choreographers as Twyla Tharp, Laura Dean, Dan Wagoner, Carolyn Adams, Senta Driver and David Parsons. According to the PBS American Masters series, it is Taylor?s ?combination of the subtlety of ballet with the spontaneity of everyday gesture that has made him such a powerful force in modern dance.?
 
Taylor has been the recipient of such honors as the 1993 National Medal of Arts; a 1969 knighthood from the government of France; an Emmy Award for the 1991 WNET/New York broadcast of his dance work, Speaking in Tongues; a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (or ?genius? award); and honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, including Skidmore.
 
In the mid-1990s, Newsweek called him ?the world?s greatest living choreographer,? and well into his seventies, Taylor remains one of the most sought-after and commissioned choreographers on the planet.  A 2009 Times dance review praised his ?art of drastic contrasts: of sun and shade, of heroes and insects, of rush and reflectiveness.? Whether dark and primal, funny, or rapturous, Taylor?s works continue to startle and delight audiences.
 
About Taylor 2
 
The offshoot company was established in 1993 as Dance magazine noted, ?to carry the choreographer?s repertoire into venues that are unsuitable?due to size, budget, and union restrictions?for the senior company.?
 
Small enough to fit into a van and perform in a lunchroom, the flexible little company closely echoes the size of Taylor?s original troupe, which was launched in 1954 with six dancers.  According to Linda  Hodes, the troupe?s inaugural director, Taylor 2 was ?jokingly referred to as the pizza element in the Taylor organization?we deliver, and we go anywhere.?  Nonetheless,  ?these dancers are every bit as skilled and delightful as the senior company, and so eager, so ready to captivate, they can?t fail,? said dance critic Allison Tracy. ?Taylor 2 is only a fraction of the size of the Paul Taylor Dance Company,? The Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out. ?Yet the junior wing appears in the chic costumes and magical lighting that give the senior company its distinctive look?.and  delights audiences with the energy, athleticism, humor and humanity that are hallmarks of Taylor?s choreography.?
 
Skidmore?s Summer Dance Residency and Workshop is sponsored in part by the Dance Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and the Office of the Dean of Special Programs at the College.  For more information about residency events, call the office at 518-580-5595 or click here.