Paul Taylor at the MAC

Last night I had the great fortune to be in the audience at Ravinia for the premiere of Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray by renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones. The work, commissioned by Ravinia for the bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln, was stirringly choreographed and staged by Bill T Jones. A script of traditional and spiritual songs, poems, speeches, and reflections on what Lincoln's life means to people today was penned by Jones with Janet Wong. The evenings event with dance, spoken and sung word, live music, and projected images was beautiful and thought provoking.

The MAC will host another icon of the dance world, dancemaker Paul Taylor's company will perform at the MAC on Thursday, Oct 1. We have recently worked through the programming with the company and are thrilled to be able to present three works, Changes, Beloved Renegade, and Brandenburgs.

Changes was commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet in 2008 and this performance will mark the first Chicagoland presentation of the work danced to music by the Mamas and the Papas. Beloved Renegage, like Bill T Jones's Fondly..., uses the words of Walt Whitman with the music of Francis Polenac's Gloria. The Work that also premiered in 2008 was met with rave reviews, Village Voice, "luminous" and "The beloved renegade could be Taylor himself—with his eccentricities, his dark humors, his wicked wit, and the beauty he finds in innocence", The New York Times, "deeply affecting... feat of poetically virtuoso layering". I cannot wait for this one. The final offering will be a classic from the Taylor's repertoire from 1988 Brandenburgs, danced to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

We are thrilled to have the Paul Taylor Dance Company back on our stage. The last time they were with us was for our 20th anniversary party in the Spring of 2007. It is sure to be an amazing night for dance enthusiasts and new comers to dance.

be well
Stephen