The Taylor 2 Company, established by Paul Taylor in 1993, performed four dance routines in the Williams Center of the Arts on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Performances include “Junction of tranquility and fervor,” “Tracer,” “3 Epitaphs” and “Party Mix,” which were modern dances choreographed by Taylor.
Nearly the entirety of the different performances made the audience laugh, especially “3 Epitaphs,” which took a more comedic and robotic approach than the other three performances.
Taylor’s style of choreography distinguishes himself with shapes as shown in “the two dimensional shape that you see in ‘3 Epitaphs,’ as well as ‘Party Mix,'” Rehearsal Director at the dance company Ruth Andrien said in the post-performance talk.
According to Andrien, “Tracer” was about the “consciousness around the dancer’s space.”
“[The dancers] didn’t have direct focus at one another so much, more indirect as if something’s happening in the back of their heads. So they had an almost subliminal, surreal kind of feeling about the presences on stage,” she said.
Taylor passed away at 88 years old on Aug. 29, 2018, according to an article in The New York Times.
Most of the dancers that performed this past Wednesday night have been part of the company for a couple of years: Rei Akazawa (7 years), Amanda Stevenson (5 years), Johnny Vorsteg (4 years), Jake Deibert (nearly 2 years), Irving Amigon (over 1 year), Sloan Pearson (1 year).
They shared their personal experiences and how Taylor had inspired their dancing and had helped them grow as people.
Pearson said that Taylor saw her for who she was, as he was always able to see the “human quality” in people when it comes to their performance.