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October 3, 2006
Modern Moves
Taylor 2 of the Paul Taylor Dance Company of New York opened the inaugural Presidential Lecture & Performance Series with a week of teaching and performance at Texas Tech University.
Written by John Davis
Alison Cook, (center) and Justin Kahan (left center), members of Taylor 2 of New York, teach modern dance to a beginning-level jazz class at Texas Tech. To the rhythm of drums, 25 students from a beginning-level jazz class began learning the movements of modern dance legend, Paul Taylor.
They swayed and bent in Taylor’s steps as Taylor 2 dancer, Alison Cook, gave her all during one of six master classes for Texas Tech students.
Taylor 2 of the Paul Taylor Dance Company of New York opened the inaugural Presidential Lecture & Performance Series with a week of teaching and performance at Texas Tech University. The dancers also went out into the public schools, teaching elementary through senior high students in the magnet programs of LISD and interacting with teachers and dancers across the city.
A Different Sensation
“I know if you’ve studied ballet, you are taught to stay up,” Cook says as she taught. “In modern dancing, it will help if you just drop a little more to the floor. It will give you a different sensation.”
Wallace Chappell, executive director of Taylor 2, says the company travels the globe teaching and performing Taylor’s movement.
“We do that in communities all over the world on a regular basis,” Chappell says. “We show them Paul Taylor’s choreography and initiate students to the wonders of modern dance. That’s the prime thing we’re dedicated to at this company.”
On Sept. 27, Chappell discussed contemporary trends in the arts during a talk and discussion moderated by President Jon Whitmore. He also spoke on Arts Administration to students in the Fine Arts Doctoral Program and the Museum Science Program.
As a coup de gras, the dance troupe performed four dances during a Sept. 29 performance at Texas Tech’s newly remodeled Allen Theatre. They included a comic parody of modern dance called “Three Epitaphs” and Taylor’s signature work, “Esplanade” – a piece inspired when Taylor watched a woman run to catch a bus.
“It’s what I like to think of as very accessible dance,” Chappell says. “Each dance has its own storyline in relation to the music. Some are more literal than others.”
Overheard Tom Patrick, rehearsal director for Taylor 2, said Texas Tech was one of the best (if not the best) residency programs that Taylor 2 had ever experienced. Behind the Dance Images Set to music by Claude Debussy, was inspired by the excavations of Minoan civilizations in the Mediterranean, with the colors of the costumes reflecting archeological discoveries, and with dancers seeming to emerge from 2-dimensional frescoes into real people experiencing the joys of life 3 Epitaphs Reflects a comic but also macabre interpretation of jazz played traditionally in New Orleans funeral marches Esplanade Set to Bach’s Violin Concerto in E Major, was inspired by an everyday movement, but the whole dance celebrates the sublime that exists in the ordinary. It is one of Taylor’s most well-beloved dances and is known for capturing a range of human emotions through dance |
Enriching Campus Life
Dr. Mary Jane Hurst, performance series organizer and faculty assistant to the president, says the lecture and performance series began this year to enrich the lives of Texas Tech University students and the Lubbock community.
“The Taylor 2 week in residence and the launching of the Lecture & Performance Series represent an enormous and invaluable boost to the cultural and academic atmosphere on campus and in the community,” Hurst says. “We are confident that our students, faculty, staff and community partners have been enriched by their engagement with this extraordinary dance group.”
After class, Edgar Tarango says he learned to appreciate modern dance more by attending the master class as well as enrolling in the beginning jazz class.
The dance and elementary education double major from Amarillo says he has studied ballet for most of his life, and didn’t like modern dance until this year.
“At first, I was a little opposed to modern dance,” Tarango says. “But to be a dancer, you have to open yourself up to new things.”
Program Contacts:
Dr. Mary Jane Hurst in the Office of the President, 806-742-212.
The next event in the Presidential Lecture & Performance series is a symposium on Truth in Nonfiction featuring judges of the 2005 National Book Award.
Visit the Lecture & Performance Series Web site for more details.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 806-742-2136.
Photography by Artie Limmer
Web editing by Julie Box
Web layout by Lisa Low