BATON FOR COMPANY PASSED TO SECURE HANDS
New director of Paul Taylor hurdles 2020, faces future
Michael Novak had been directing the Paul Taylor Dance Company for less than two years when he was charged with navigating a world in which his dancers couldn’t touch each other and audiences were a thing of the past. He couldn’t ask the man who came before him for guidance—taylor died in August 2018, just four months after naming Novak his successor—but he knew what his mentor would have done.
“Paul would have been in the studio, he would have been making work, he would have been determined to keep on going,” Novak said in a recent interview. “That spirit of ‘inaction is not an option’ gave me permission to think outside the box. This past year has been all about pivoting and adapting and innovating at a very rapid rate.”
The company moved all its educational programming to the digital space and began offering free classes for students of all ages. To maintain a sense of community and inspiration among the 16 dancers, Novak supplemented ongoing training with coaching from company alumni, who Zoomed in from around the world. Starting last fall, he began bringing the dancers back into the studio in small groups, under strict safety protocols, to film scaled-down work that was streamed for remote audiences.
“What ended up happening was the company went through the pandemic as a collective,” Novak said. “They worked together and made sacrifices together—daily testing, masks, quarantining—and they bonded together through an incredibly horrible time. That has strengthened friendships, trust and respect, and they’re emerging more unified, more supportive of each other and more of a
family.”
That is serving them well as they return to live performance. Last month, the company was in Los Angeles performing its first shows in front of audiences, and now they are at PS21 in Chatham for a three-week residency (June 21–July 4 and Aug. 1–8) that includes three performances—this Friday and Saturday and Aug. 7.
The company has dusted off two Taylor classics to stage this weekend. “Company B,” from 1991, is set to songs by the Andrews Sisters and harks back to the 1940s, with riffs on the jitterbug, polka and Lindy hop. “Esplanade,” from 1975, set to J. S. Bach concertos, was inspired by Taylor’s sighting of a girl running to catch a bus; it’s built around everyday pedestrian movement like standing, walking, running, sliding and falling.
“In conversations with patrons over the past several months, there’s an incredible interest in seeing works that are on the lighter side,” Novak said. “Paul’s work is not always light—most pieces have both light and dark within them. We’re erring on the side of spirited works and nostalgia, works that make people feel good.”
The Aug. 7 performance will open with “Aureole,” from 1962, set to baroque music by George Frideric Handel and considered Taylor’s first major success. The second half of the program features
Paul would have been in the studio, he would have been making work, he would have been determined to keep on going.”
— Michael Novak
a 1932 ballet by German choreographer Kurt Jooss, “The Green Table,” which the company is reconstructing during the residency. Subtitled “A dance of death in eight scenes,” the piece was created just as Nazism was taking hold in Europe, but its messages about the futility of war are universal and timeless.
Breathing new life into the piece and revitalizing the Taylor dances involved small tweaks and tinkering, while maintaining the integrity of the original versions, Novak says.
“You want to stay true to the work but it has to still feel relevant,” he said. “I like to say that we work to protect the present rather than protecting the past. Paul was always tinkering with things as well, making little adjustments, keeping that sense of flexibility so it feels new and gives the dancers a sense of ownership.”
As the first generation of dancers to carry the torch after Taylor’s passing, the company is drawing on the connections forged over the past year to shape their contribution to the choreographer’s legacy.
“The human connection, the moments of trust and simplicity and humanity, are such an essential part of what Paul looked for and what we do, and that requires knowing each other very well and creating a sense of community onstage,” Novak said. “There’s a lot of excitement, enthusiasm and fearlessness as the dancers return to the stage, but also a sense of responsibility, a sense that they’re a part of something much larger.”