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TAYLOR MADE

When we lived in Boston, we never missed the Paul Taylor Dance Company. This gives a nostalgia jolt.

Enigmatic Choreographer Tells an Enigmatic Tale

It is a kind of dumb headline. Dance is enigmatic or, most likely, it is not very good dance.

The thing about Paul Taylor, who is now 81, is that he uses beautiful dancers. Not only in the classical sense but in the sense of having vivid personalities that transmit throughout the work. He choreographs for them. It is a bit like the star system.

And at the same time, the ensemble is perfection.

The other thing that I love is that the gay Mr. Taylor understands his gay audience appreciation of the male form. It is not hidden nor is code used through hetero-hiding. The Taylor men are beautiful and buff and extremely attractive. Not the vapid feminized males that used to inhabit the ballet stage.

And he keeps their shirt off or thin or as afterthoughts.

That is the other thing. Costumes. Modern but arty.

Moving out here is a loss on the ballet side. There isn't any. Period. And tours certainly do not come to Palm Springs.

But there are compensations.

All I have to do is look out the window for color and beauty and just across Ramon Road, in the clothing optional neighborhood, there are attractive men walking the streets any night of the week. But that is something different. But still a dance.

I digress.

Labels: dancing, gay life, urbia