Mastering the modern moves

The 30 dancers assembled at the Parker dance studio Wednesday night were of different ages, heights, body shapes and abilities, and garbed in varying forms of dance attire, but they were all there for a unique opportunity to learn Paul Taylor dance techniques from a member of the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company.

"It's a good experience," said Chelsie Colyer, a student of Dance Extensions in Jackson. "There isn't a whole lot of that type of dance taught around here."

Colyer was one of four students from Dance Extensions to participate in the 90-minute class. Seven students from the Ballet Arts Center in Farmington, Mo., and two students from the Academy of Dance Arts in Cape Girardeau also were invited to attend the class alongside students from the university.

The class was part of a three-day residency by the company, along with a lecture-demonstration that was open to the public Thursday and a performance at 8 tonight (Oct. 29) at Rose Theatre.

Paul Taylor 2 is a six-member dance company formed in 1993 to bring the work of choreographer Paul Taylor, one of modern dance's most important figures, to a wider audience. It is an offshoot of the larger Paul Taylor Dance Company, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Taylor 2 performs pieces done by the main company, but alters them to accommodate its smaller size. They also focus on education by holding residencies such as the one at the university this week.

The company spends about 40 weeks a year on the road, performing and holding classes and lectures, said production manager Mike Paquette. While company members try to perform as much as possible, Paquette said sometimes they just hold classes, as they will during an upcoming weeklong residency in Seattle.

"It helps us show what the Paul Taylor style is," Paquette said of the classes.

Tom Patrick, the company's rehearsal director, taught students the Paul Taylor style Wednesday. Before joining Paul Taylor 2, Patrick spent 10 years dancing in the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

"I couldn't believe what I had been missing until that point," Patrick said about seeing the Paul Taylor Dance Company perform for the first time. "The physicality of it blew me away."

So as not to blow the students away with complex moves from the company's repertoire, Patrick at first led them through exercises that associated them with Taylor techniques.

The first exercise had the students lying on their backs and contracting their abdominal muscles while lifting their heads and arms. It looked similar to an abdominal exercise you would see in a gym, except much more graceful.

The students caught on quickly to Patrick's demonstrations and would imitate his moves right after being introduced to them. All the while, Patrick revealed important components to the Taylor technique.

"There are so many parts in your legs that are integrated," he tells them early on.

"The back moves the arms," he later said. "If there's one thing that all of us in the Paul Taylor world adhere to is that the back moves the arms."

"Learn where the weight is being shifted. It's the most important thing to learning a new dance move," Patrick said.

The students go through the exercises once listening to Patrick's instructions and then again to music. After a while, the exercises start to look less like a warm up and more like a dance composition.

As the students perform the exercises against the highly rhythmic beat of the music, the studio comes alive with movement that was graceful and powerful at the same time. There were skyward-reaching arms, curved backs and a potent mix of ballet and athletic movements.

At the end of the class, Patrick leads the students through a movement from Taylor's "Cloven Kingdom," a variation on the waltz three count tempo that mixes classical dance moves with modern movements.

It is a complex set of moves that has the students applying many of the exercises they had just learned. As row after row of students sweep across the dance floor on their second and third attempts, the beauty of Paul Taylor's choreography comes to life.

A beauty that will be fully apparent when the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company performs tonight, presenting three of Taylor's well-known works, "Airs," "Rumes" and "Piazzaolla Caldera."

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

WANT TO GO?

What: Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company performance

When: 8 p.m. today (Oct. 29)

Where: Rose Theatre