\n<\/p>\n
When designing sets for the choreographer Paul Taylor, the artist Alex Katz had a habit he called \u201ckilling the center.\u201d Katz would stick obstacles in the middle of the stage \u2014 fake boulders, a bunch of mirrors, cutouts of dogs \u2014 to deny Taylor the easy power of that theatrical focal point. Taylor always rose to the creative challenge.<\/p>\n
For \u201cDrum Circle,\u201d a new work that the Taylor company debuted at Lincoln Center on Friday, the choreographer Larry Keigwin has killed the center for himself. He\u2019s stuck a large platform just off the middle of the stage, an island that William Catanzaro and two other percussionists inhabit along with an array of instruments, mostly percussive.<\/p>\n
Keigwin, though, doesn\u2019t rise to the challenge. Having the musicians take up so much prime real estate, playing Catanzaro\u2019s lively score, does major damage to the space for dancing and the stage composition. And Keigwin has no Taylor-like imaginative response to the problem. The dancers are shunted to one side or awkwardly stuck behind the island. Mostly, they travel around the platform, again and again, making gestures with their hands as they, yes, circle the drums.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This spatial flaw is surprising, since traffic control is usually one of Keigwin\u2019s strengths. His dances are often high-energy and fun, but this one doesn\u2019t do much more than rely on the dancers\u2019 ample stamina. Keigwin borrows some Taylor steps and throws in some hip rolls and brief couplings. One short solo for Devon Louis, set to clapping, manages to build up some speed and cool. But \u201cDrum Circle\u201d looks awfully thin, especially when sandwiched between two Taylor works \u2014 like the all-thrusters-firing \u201cMercuric Tidings\u201d<\/a> and the running-in-circles masterpiece \u201cEsplanade<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s easy to imagine what Keigwin was after: introducing the noise-making excitation of a percussive score and flaunting its liveness. For a better use of a percussive score, Taylor audiences can look this season to Ulysses Dove\u2019s \u201cVespers,\u201d which the company debuted on Saturday. Made for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in 1986 and long in the repertory of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, \u201cVespers\u201d has the savvy sense of stage space and the no-let-up compositional tension that \u201cDrum Circle\u201d lacks. It\u2019s one of Dove\u2019s best works, balancing the pressurized release of strong emotion (in this case, grief) against a simple but strong formal structure.<\/p>\n It begins with a woman sitting on a cafe chair, and the way that Jada Pearman sits up straight speaks volumes. This is a breakout role for her. She points up and down and stands on the chair with rhythmically accurate precision and positions as clear as cut outs.<\/p>\n Escaping from and returning to a chair is the work\u2019s main idea, multiplied in its second part, as Pearman is joined by five other women and two sets of chairs, one on each side of the stage. The motion between the sides is tidal and torrential, the dancers spinning out and back in trios and solos, sometimes rotating a karate chop into another\u2019s midsection. Sitting on the chairs and toggling between resilience and collapse, in relay or alternation, they match the rhythmic force of the electronically layered drums in Mikel Rouse\u2019s prerecorded score. The six Taylor women \u2014 especially Pearman and Madelyn Ho, who are having breakthrough seasons \u2014 become one fierce sisterhood.<\/p>\n Where \u201cVespers\u201d shows how a percussive score can be effectively channeled, Lauren Lovette\u2019s new \u201cEcho\u201d shows how sharing focus with live musicians can work. The string trio Time for Three rises from the pit on a platform to sing angelically and play with punk ferocity. But rather than impeding the dance, the visible musicians add energy, and, crucially, Lovette\u2019s choreography matches the grand scale of Kevin Puts\u2019s dramatic score, filled out by the Orchestra of St. Luke\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Live music has been a regular feature of recent Taylor seasons, yet it shouldn\u2019t be taken for granted. Playing Puts or Bach or Piazzolla, the Orchestra is an extraordinary asset for the Taylor troupe. May the partnership continue. The Paul Taylor Dance Company is looking and sounding well.<\/p>\n Paul Taylor Dance Company<\/strong><\/p>\n Through Nov. 12 at the David H. Koch Theater; davidhkochtheater.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n