Paul Taylor Dance's Power of Simplicity

The Paul Taylor Dance Company has no prima ballerina, espouses no hierarchy, but dancer Lisa Viola has long been first among equals. On the company’s website she’s listed first, definitely out of alphabetical order. In the award-winning documentary about the company, Dancemaker, the camera singles out Viola repeatedly. Her powerful dancing and intense stage presence have made her a Taylor mainstay for nearly 16 years. The announcement of her retirement and her farewell concert last March led many in the press and the dance community to look back on her stellar career.

When we learned that she was coming to Cleveland to teach master classes in conjunction with the company’s Cleveland performance, it seemed like the opportune moment to arranged a phone interview and get her insights into the workings of the Taylor Company and the making of Taylor dancers.

Cool Cleveland: Your bio on the Taylor Company website says you’ve been Assistant to the Rehearsal Director since 2006. Should we assume that’s what you’ll be doing now that you’ve retired from performing?

Lisa Viola: It’s not my call. It’s Paul Taylor’s call. So if he’ll have me on past October, then yes, I’ll continue doing that but it’s not a position that’s there for me. He has the final say on everything. When you leave the company you can’t assume that the company is going to have work for you. I would love to have work in some capacity with the company but I’ll have to wait it out and see.

Paul Taylor has choreographed 128 dances and the website lists them with the clear implication that the Taylor Company can and perhaps will revive any or all of these dances in the future. Also, PTDC seems to keep an unusual number of dances ready for performance. All this involves a heavy rehearsal load, right?

We normally have 18 to 20 pieces in rep on a year-round basis. What happens is every 6 months or so some pieces are rotated out and another batch gets rotated in. That’s how so many pieces are always ready to be put on stage.

It seems like a lot of pieces for a company with less than 20 people.

There are 16 of us; it’s all doable (laughing). At City Center we used to not have as many pieces in rep but since we had the 50th anniversary season we brought a lot of pieces back and we seem to have dealt with the workload. It was ok for us so we’ve kept it at that, especially for a New York season.

So it’s not a terrible grind.

We’re all used to it by now. What normally happens is Paul creates 2 pieces a year – he has 2 creative periods – and each creative period is 6 weeks long. Within those 12 weeks we clean pieces, learn revivals, and keep things in order. Then you have new dancers coming in and so you have to help them out and if you’ve already been in a piece you’re accessible to the other dancers who haven’t done it. Business as usual and yet really not because as an artist you can continue growing – even though it’s a piece you’ve done over and over you can find other challenges within the piece. And, you know, it’s a fun gig. After you rehearse it and perform it then you get to travel, then play the home town.

Of course, you’re teaching a master class in Cleveland, but what’s your role in the Cleveland concert? Directing rehearsals?

I’m still dancing with the company for a couple more weeks.

You are? But there was that performance marking your retirement. (see “Embodying Grandeur, saying Goodbye,” Lisa Viola’s ‘final performance’ as described in the 3/18/08 New York Sun found here.) Well, lucky us, you’re still dancing.

Yeah, I still am. (laughing) People are like, ‘You’re still here?’ With Taylor you give a year’s notice so a little over a year ago I gave notice so now my last show will be in a few weeks. Cleveland is the second to the last show for me. The company’s in rehearsal and I’m rehearsing, obviously, with them. Then I’ll be traveling to Cleveland a few days earlier so I can teach those 2 master classes.

So how can we explain to our readers what sets the Taylor Company apart?

I remember seeing my first Taylor concert; the first piece was Roses – modern dancers using their torsos in a beautiful way, pretty but unlike ballet – and then a piece called Last Look (Taylor in one of his dark, despairing moods) – I’d never seen any kind of movement like that before, so that hit me really hard. I remember sitting in the audience after the curtain went down and I was, like, tingling. Then the last piece was Esplanade, his signature piece, which is a piece that Cleveland will see on Saturday, and that’s a classic you can’t go wrong with. He just hits everything with his choreography, all emotions; he can do the pretty, he can do the dark, he can do the light. For anyone who’s never seen modern dance before, Taylor’s the way to go.

The thing that always hit me about Taylor was the athleticism.

Well he was a swimmer so the way he uses his back in his repertory is just like a swimmer. So we all have really broad backs.

How do you sustain that level of athleticism? I remember when I first saw Esplanade – those horrendous slides across the floor.

I teach some of the movement from Esplanade in classes and I think sometimes you just have to look at it and go for it. You just have to show it and do it and that’s actually the best way to attempt some of the stuff we do in Esplanade. If you break it down it’s just the simplest stuff, walking, running, jumping. It’s very pedestrian. You know, Esplanade was the first piece Paul made after he retired from the stage and he said, ‘Let’s go with the basics,’ so, simple as that, a perfect piece.

That’s a great introduction to Esplanade. Can you give us that kind of introduction to the other 2 pieces in the Cleveland concert?

Paul doesn’t do synopses for his pieces. Whatever audiences get out of them is fine with him. But for Cloven Kingdom, Paul gives a quote from Spinoza, “Man is a social animal.” The piece opens with all 8 of the women in the company in long gowns – very elegant – but if you really look at it there are moments when we become like animals with paws. We have silver on our heels like hooves to indicate that we’re like animals. And then the 4 men in the piece are in tuxes. So you’re at an elegant ball but I guess Paul’s trying to show that we have that animalistic side to us that comes out.

And what about Diggity?

Oh, Diggity! (laughing) Well, I can just describe. There are 20 some dogs taped on stage (sculptor Alex Katz’ painted metal dogs) and there are women in white dresses and men in khaki slacks and a woman in underwear and you take it from there. (laughing) It’s a fun one. I don’t know if there’s a story line but if I figure it out I’ll let you know. (In a 1989 NYT review, Jennifer Dunning described Diggity as “a signature work, Mr. Taylor at his sweetest, with his broadest, sliest grin.”)

What can you accomplish in a single master class?

Just showing students, dancers, how we move through space. With Taylor it’s not a codified technique like Graham or Horton. It’s more of a way of moving through space. I’ll probably have them understand how to use the back, like a swimmer pulling through water – that’s how we carry our backs and our arms through space and into the air. And then I’ll try to find repertoire that we’re doing for Saturday’s show so if they can see the show they can say, ‘Hey, we touched on that.’

Lisa Viola will teach master classes 10 - 11:45AM Thursday, July 17 and Friday July 18 in the CSU Dance Studio. For more information contact Lynn Deering at 687-4883 or dance@csuohio.edu or visit http://www.csuohio.edu/dance.

NO-COST MODERN DANCE CLASSES with members of the Paul Taylor Dance Company on Saturday, July 19 in the Red Rehearsal Hall of the State Theatre (1650 Chester Ave.) Advanced students 11AM - 1PM. Professional Dancers and College Dance Majors 1 - 3PM. Registration is required by calling 348-7909. A Master Class attendee will be able to purchase a second tier price ticket to the Cain Park performance for only a ten-spot. Sponsored by the Playhouse Square Education Department.

Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform 8PM Saturday, July 19 at Cain Park’s Evans Amphitheater. Advance and day-of-show tickets are available. Visit the Cain Park Main Ticket Office outside the east gate to Evans Amphitheater; use Goodnor / Superior entrance. Phone Cain Park 371-3000 or Ticketmaster online: http://www.ticketmaster.com.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsaATearthlink.net
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