Showing posts with label paul taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paul taylor. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

a series of streams

the following is a series of stream-of-consciousness writings i have written over the course of the past few days (both before and after my departure for the yard)

Paul Taylor in the park. Extraordinary. Farewell, New York City.  I depart in forty-eight hours . Excitement abound. I am on the train to Bronxville. Going to see Josh for the last time. The sun set on the dancers. Esplanade was special tonight.

I made friends with old ladies. They wished me luck on my journey.

you will find me
in the sycamore trees
that's where i'll be
all alone, dreaming of you
combing the fair breeze.

watching the bees suckle honey from little flower to flower, the beauty of their calculations. i want to live out in the country, though part of me despises it. they morning fog creeps away revealing the sun-and-cloud speckled sky. i think about my future, the weary world's future, then the homesickness sets in a bit.

thoreau once came to the beaches of Staten Island. This is what he said of those sandy plains by the water's edge:
The sea-beach is the best thing I have seen. It sits very solitary and remote, and you only remember New York occasionally. The distances, too, along the shore and inland sight of it, are unaccountable great and startling. The sea seems very near from the hills, but it proves a long way over the plain, and yet you may be wet with the spray before you can believe that you are there. The far seems near and the near far.

-Thoreau to Emerson, Staten Island, June 8 1843 (as written on the boardwalk)

the tree on the lawn.
dusk is a fair  time on the vineyard.
crickets play their pretty little things
seeing at the sound of it
that time is never
i hear the guitar music, folks in the distance
and not a car around.
the pale haze surrounds the trees
that nestle us inside a cocoon
of water starlight
i want my home
to be
forever
in
the startle open.

deers on the highway sound
far away
from here

i have this image of me slow and moving with the love of my life. he's looking at me and i at him and we are like two children-- smiling and laughing but continuing this slow waltz, our weight sinking into each other equally, we hold on with our eyes-- he's my dancing partner.

meet me by the river for a swim.
 -m

Thursday, August 5, 2010

paul in the park
paul taylor performance free this evening!




I am super excited about tonight's free performances. In anticipation, I have watched an early filmed version of Esplanade on Youtube, probably 10 times already. Here is my favorite section from the dance, the very last section which is the most kinetic and also the most urgent. Much of my dance work owes a lot to this dance. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkciz_yYYI&feature=related

Things I will be thinking about during tonight's performance: How the performance of Esplanade has evolved over the generations of dancers who have danced it... how has the virtuosity of the technique expanded and what has been lost/gained. Also, I will be thinking of its splendid beauty.

And just to refresh, tonight's performances begin at 7.30pm with Paul Taylor 2, the apprentice company. They will perform 3 Epitaphs followed by Esplanade. The senior company will then perform Airs, Syzygy, and Company B. Performances take place at Damrosch Park as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. For those of you who don't know where that is (I didn't until I looked it up,) it is located at 70 Lincoln Center Plaza & W 62nd St, New York, 10023. Telephone: (212) 875-5456

Take the 1 train to W 66th and walk down, the Bandshell is nestled between Amsterdam Ave and W 62nd. 


Paul Taylor 2 will continue to celebrate his 80th birthday dance season with another free performance, August 13th with Naganuma Dance Company at the East River Amphitheater. Performance starts at 7. The bill will include Airs and Company B.

***

I will see this performance tonight as a parting gift from nyc to me before I leave for Martha's Vineyard. My trip will include a long bus ride followed by a steamship ferry. I leave August 7th and will not be back again until September 30th. During my stay, I will update my blog frequently-- covering the dance classes, performances, lectures, and beauty of the island. I hope to take pictures and films, draw, and send postcards to my dearest friends and family.

Here's to safe travels, beautiful summer vacations, and free dance in the park :)

peace and love dear readers,
melissa

Thursday, July 15, 2010

free dance in nyc
summer 2010
Check out these upcoming FREE events in NYC!:

As part of the River to River Festival: Paul-Andre Fortier will be presenting a solo, 30x30 from July 16-Aug 14th, 12.00pm-12.30pm. It is located at 1 New York Plaza. Fortier is a Canadian choreographer presenting this minimalist, site-specific piece. I am very excited to see the first showing tomorrow at noon!

 The Solar Powered Dance Festival, part of Solar One. I have wanted to see this festival for years and it has never worked out. This year I will visit, finally.... Program A is presented July 22-24, at 6.00pm and Program B is July 29-31, also at 6. Visit the website: http://solar1.org/events/dance/
Solar One- 23rd St. and the East River. It is an outdoor, kid friendly series.


July 26th:at 6.00pm, Battery City Park. There will be a beautiful celebration of Merce Cunningham's life (he passed one year ago). Works presented by Lucinda Childs, John Kinzel, and more!
We Give Ourselves Away at Every Moment: An EVENT for Merce, on the Esplanade Plaza at Battery Park City on July 26 at 6 p.m.



August 5th: 80th Birthday Celebration, Paul Taylor Dance Company and PT2, Thursday, August 5 at 7:30, Damrosch Park Bandshell, FREE
Celebrate the 80th birthday of a true giant of modern dance with both of his esteemed dance companies sharing a program for the first time. The extraordinary PTDC company performs Airs, Syzygy, and Company B, moving from sublime lyricism to full-throttle physicality to the poignant dualities of love and war. Taylor 2 performs Taylor’s signature masterpiece Esplanade, as well as a unprecedented live collaboration with Asphalt Orchestra, which performs an original arrangement of the score to the pioneering 3 Epitaphs.

So excited for this!!! This will be the last thing dance show I see before leaving nyc for the summer. Awesomeeeee :)!


That's all for now! :)


Enjoy- m