A rainy summer evening couldn’t stop the spirited performance of the Paul Taylor Dance Company in the open-air pavilion theater at PS21 on Friday, August 2. As always at PS21, the interconnectedness with the outdoors seamlessly integrates into the performance and becomes a part of the world the artists create for us. This was particularly evident in the evening’s repertoire of the regal and virtuosic “Brandenburgs,” nocturnal and preternatural “Runes,” and the nod to Greek mythology “Promethean Fire.
” Opening the performance was “Brandenburgs” (1988), set to the Bach concertos of the same name (“The Brandenburg Concertos”), beginning with a picturesque formation of the dancers posed as if in a painting. Just as the music was fugue-like in its structure and composition, so was the dance, with motifs recurring on variation throughout the work. “Brandenburgs” was a lively choreography of spiraling attitudes and lyrical, elegant formations reminiscent of courtly dances.
Amid shades of earthy green and gold costumes, Taylor’s characteristic elements of athletic allegro and an impeccable body carriage were evident in each dancer. The corps of three women, five men, and one male soloist evoked moments of jubilee and subtle flirtations. At one point, the male soloist held the stage in a spotlight, creating a temporary world of his own before breaking into the full stage and leading the corps into a signature centrifugal circle formation of Taylor’s bef.