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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 1 September 2018
Paul Taylor, giant of modern dance, dead at 88 in New York

Paul Taylor, giant of mod- tell me you're any good at
ern dance, dead at 88 in it," the coach replied. Tay-
New York lor couldn't — at least not
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP yet.
National Writer Taylor transferred to Juil-
NEW YORK (AP) — Paul liard in New York, but first
Taylor, a towering fig- he attended a summer
ure in American modern dance course where he
dance who, in a career met, and learned from,
that spanned more than six the great modern chore-
decades, created a vast ographer Martha Graham.
body of work that reflected Years later, his name would
both the giddy highs and become forever linked with
the depraved lows of the hers as part of the great trio
human condition, has died. of modern dance chore-
He was 88. ographers, along with Mer-
Spokeswoman Lisa Lab- ce Cunningham. (Graham
rado told The Associat- died in 1991, Cunningham
ed Press that Taylor died in 2009.)
Wednesday at Beth Israel A year after graduating
Medical Center in Manhat- Juilliard in 1953, Taylor set
tan. Labrado said Taylor up his own company, re-
was in hospice care and hearsing in whatever space
died of renal failure. he could find. He was 24,
Taylor kept working well and his first work was a
into his 80s, venturing into collaboration with the art-
his company's Manhattan This Jan. 8, 1969 file photo shows dancer-choreographer Paul Taylor in New York. ist Robert Rauschenberg,
studios from his Long Island Associated Press "Jack and the Beanstalk."
home to choreograph two A year later he joined Gra-
new pieces a year, and 147 Audiences often appreci- some 1950s family — a began his life in a town out- ham's company as a solo-
in all. ated Taylor's newer pieces, couple and their daughter side Pittsburgh, but spent ist — he would dance there
"The works that satisfy me but his signature work sure- — comes out to the fun fair much of his youth in the for seven seasons, while
the most? They're the ones ly remained "Esplanade," to play, but after feeding Washington, D.C. area. continuing to build his own
I'm working on," he told The from 1975, an explosion of coins into Bertha's slot, slips In his whimsically written company.
Associated Press in a 2011 joy and athleticism, with into depravity; by the end, autobiography, "Private "We can only be grateful for
interview, while rehearsing Taylor's limber dancers the father has raped and Domain," he describes a this extraordinarily creative
"To Make Crops Grow," his running, skipping, hurling killed his pig-tailed young childhood full of boundary- individual voice, which
137th dance. "It's the work themselves into each oth- daughter. Even a lighter testing moments: A run-in for more than six decades
process that I like. Once it's er's arms like missiles and work, "Company B," a set of with police after he and a has been so primary in the
done, I want to put every- tumbling to the floor with jaunty dances like the jitter- friend steal a baby stroller foundation of what dance
thing out of my mind. I'd abandon, all to two Bach bug to the music of the An- from a variety store, or a is and can be," Juilliard
rather forget it." concertos. drews Sisters, has its dark el- prep-school stunt involving President Damian Woetzel,
The Paul Taylor Dance Com- The pairing of classical ements: Look closely amid the actual excavation of a a former New York City Bal-
pany is one of the world's music — especially 18th- the joyful dances and you coffin. let principal dancer, wrote
most successful contem- century Baroque — with a see young men as soldiers, He wound up at Syracuse to the AP in an email.
porary troupes, touring the very modern style of dance shot and crumpling to the University, where he studied In 1956, Taylor choreo-
globe year-round and able was one of Taylor's hall- ground. painting and then joined graphed one of his odder,
to pull off an annual three- marks. But he also went far A strong message always the swim team, purely to but much-discussed works:
week season at Lincoln and wide with his musical emanated from Taylor's gain scholarship money. "3 Epitaphs," the oldest work
Center's David H. Koch The- choices, scoring his works work, said dance writer Al- College sports was more in his company's repertoire
ater. Taylor dancer Michael not only with symphonies lan Ullrich. "You know he's work than he expected, today (it opened the com-
Novak, named by Taylor as and concertos but ragtime, always saying something," but at 6-foot tall and with pany's Spring 2013 season
artistic director designate tango, barbershop quartet Ullrich said. "There should a huge arm span, he was at Lincoln Center.)
earlier this year, becomes and even elevator music. be two words written on his well suited to the sport. For the score, he chose
the second artistic director In "Big Bertha" (1970), set tombstone: 'He communi- Those arms, swinging early New Orleans jazz, the
in the company's 64-year in an amusement park, he cated.'" through space, would be- music played at weddings
history. used music from a band Mindful of the future of come crucial to his dance and funerals in the south.
"Paul Taylor was one of the machine acquired from modern dance, Taylor work. In fact, Taylor's signa- He set five peculiar crea-
world's greatest dance- a St. Louis museum. "That sought to create an institu- ture move looks a bit like tures — something like futur-
makers, and his passing gave me the idea for the tional home for the art form a swimmer in mid-butterfly istic cavemen — gyrating
deeply saddens not only dance," he said. "Often when, in 2015, he began stroke, albeit twisted up to across the stage, dressed
those of us who worked one starts with an idea and presenting his spring Lin- the sky. head-to-toe in dark gray
with him, but also people then looks for music, but it coln Center season under But the desire to dance unitards, designed by
all over the world whose works both ways." a new entity, Paul Taylor came as a shock to Tay- Rauschenberg, with reflec-
spirits have been touched "Big Bertha," though, was American Modern Dance, lor: In his sophomore year, tors shining on their heads
by his incomparable art," most notable for its disturb- which offers works of other he once wrote, he experi- and hands.
Novak said in a statement. ing content, reflecting Tay- leading choreographers of enced "something stronger In 1959, Taylor collabo-
"We are grateful for your lor's penchant for giving the past, present and fu- than an itch ... an unignor- rated with another gi-
love and support as we be- equal time to the darkest ture alongside his own. able hunch ... a flash." He ant of dance, George
gin to carry on his legacy depths of human nature. Paul Belleville Taylor, Jr. was informed his incredulous Balanchine, of the New
with the utmost fidelity and "Bertha" is a robotic car- born July 29, 1930, during swimming coach he was York City Ballet, in his
devotion." nival creature. A whole- the Great Depression. He leaving, to dance. "Don't "Episodes."q