Paul Taylor Dance Company

"Paul Taylor is without question the greatest living American choreographer. Taylor's emphasis on emotion within actual movement, the rhythmic vitality of his accents, his all-American youthfulness and optimism, all have set standards for American dance."
–San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

The Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to Northrop with Taylor's most notable works from what's considered as the Golden Age in his choreographic life. In his majestic Promethean Fire (2001) each of the sixteen dancers represent a whirlwind of emotions weaving in and out in a kaleidoscope pattern that mirrors the way they flow through life. The intricacy continues in his latest work Brief Encounters (2010), a visualization of one's interest in a momentary connection rather than a long-term relationship. Cloven Kingdom (1976) claws its way through our animal nature as dancers dressed for a cotillion ball battle with their primal urges as the music wages war between baroque and a punctuated percussive score. The boundaries of modern dance will be pushed all night through experimentation with movement and stillness, and music's relationship to dance.

Cloven Kingdom (1976)
Music by Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Cowell, and Malloy Miller

Brief Encounters (2010)
Music by Claude Debussy

Promethean Fire (2001)
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach