DANCE REVIEW; Promethean

Light Illuminates Hope

By ANNA KISSELGOFF JUNE 10, 2002

It has grandeur, majesty and a spiritual dimension. It is also quite

simply one of the best dance works choreographed by Paul Taylor.

Commissioned by the American Dance Festival to open its annual

summer season at Duke University here, ''Promethean Fire,'' as this
premiere is called with unabashed cosmic flair, is set to Bach. It
seems initially still another inspired Taylor work to Baroque music.

On another level it may be Mr. Taylor's response to the Sept. 11

attacks. The occasional images of despair, rage and physical
collapse are direct, but to reduce the choreography to any literal
interpretation is to lose the breadth of its formal beauty.

Just the sheer architectonics of the complex and contrapuntal

patterns overwhelm the eye. ''Promethean Fire'' is a big piece,
spreading 16 dancers in black velvet with glistening trim into
constantly reconfigured structures. They are building blocks in the
human cathedral that Mr. Taylor constructs uncannily and perfectly
with such powerful emotional resonance. To say ''Promethean Fire''
lifted the audience out of its seats on Saturday night at the Page
Auditorium would not be an exaggeration.

Mr. Taylor's program note speaks of regeneration in a quote from

Shakespeare: ''fire that can thy light relume.'' The abstract design of
''Promethean Fire'' becomes a metaphor for a coming to terms and
a salvation; it is not a retelling of the myth of Prometheus.

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 To appreciate the work mainly for its formal composition would be
right. It is a plotless dance that pays tribute to Bach's own
architectonics. Yet Mr. Taylor has always argued that gesture and
spatial composition are never devoid of dramatic meaning, and here
he operates on several levels.

The dancers are introduced as vertical forms facing the audience,

hands at their sides. Santo Loquasto's costumes are marvelously
apt: black velvet tank suits with winding ribbons rendered brown
and silvery under Jennifer Tipton's superbly dramatic and half-dark
lighting. The beginning of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor
breaks up the symmetry of this initial formation and spreads the
dancers into horizontal lines that dominate the work. Waves of
movement travel from one line to another, dancers crisscross or one
line plays against the other.

Smaller units come to the fore. Julie Tice wraps herself around
Robert Kleinendorst's neck, and he holds her up in a back bend.
There are an unusual number of lifts for Mr. Taylor. But one
interesting aspect is that with few exceptions, the movement is not
new. The Taylor idiom, with its curved arms, slides across the floor
and images of women carried on a man's hips, is in full view. After a
braided chain of dancers steps across, there is increased tension
and tautness among the dancers who pair off.

Whatever vertical forms existed in the imagination as humans,

skyscrapers and girders, all suddenly begin to collapse. One by one
the bodies fall into a heap. A splayed hand is raised and closed in a
fist. Suddenly the mood changes.

Ms. Tipton turns the lighting up to bright red for the fire of despair
and hope in a duet danced by Patrick Corbin and Lisa Viola to

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 Bach's Prelude in E flat. Nothing is specific but there is an evocation
of consolation and then frustrated rage. Formal partnering with
pirouettes and unison movement turns into a shoving match. The
man pushes the woman into a back fall. She holds onto his ankle
and then, running from one end of the stage to the other, flies into
his arms in what looks like ballet's fish dive. The audience gasps.

As usual Ms. Viola and Mr. Corbin make the difficult look passionate
and easy. Their quiet music is succeeded by Bach's grand Choral
Prelude as more couples join in. The numbers of dancers change
consistently. This is a work to be seen more than once if its details
are to be even remotely captured by the eye. But there is no
mistaking the theme of resolution as the dancers cartwheel and
swivel on one knee, transforming a jubilant diagonal of five couples
into the final pyramidlike grouping. A structure rebuilt. Bravo to the
entire cast.

The program included two familiar Taylor works, ''Cloven Kingdom''

and ''The Word.'' The festival was dedicated this season to the Doris
Duke Charitable Foundation for its support of new works (including
''Promethean Fire'') commissioned by the festival.

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