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Dancemaker: Watching from the Wings

© Lynn Ward

There's something wonderfully simple about the way Paul Taylor refers to himself as a "dancemaker," a title that filmmaker Michael Diamond adopts for his Oscar-nominated documentary about the legendary choreographer and his renowned company of dancers. And yet, it's also deceptively simple. While it's lovely to think of Taylor working in some sort of artistic vacuum, "making dances" outside the messiness of everyday life, the film reveals that an artist rarely achieves such complete transcendence, particularly in the world of dance. Because choreographers are usually incapable of fully realizing a new piece without the participation of other dancers, they are uniquely reliant on human interaction in the realization of their work. As one dance critic states in the film, "The process of creation is an extraordinarily social event." Michael Diamond uses his film to explore this social dynamic between choreographer and company, and to delve into the simultaneously glorious and weary world of professional dance, with the fantastically talented Paul Taylor at the center of that world.

The film opens with a portion of one of Taylor's most famous pieces, "Esplanade," with the camera filming the performance from the wings. By giving us this backstage glimpse, Diamond has immediately asserted the paradox that is professional dance, as the effortless grace and invincibility onstage sharply contrast with the audible exhaustion and nerves that reveal themselves offstage. This duality is echoed throughout the film as Diamond captures the creation and rehearsal of a new Taylor piece, building to its New York premiere.

With thousands of unemployed dancers vying for work, to belong to a company like Paul Taylor's is a major accomplishment in and of itself, and to remain there is a struggle everyday. In a series of interviews with current members of the troupe, we hear a mixture of gratitude and persistent anxiety as they describe the path that has brought them to this tenuous level of success. And having achieved this height, the sacrifices continue, both financially and physically. In one scene, we watch as the dancers unsuccessfully try to negotiate a reasonable daily stipend for a trip to India; in another, we hear each dancer recite a laundry list of injuries, many serious, and nearly all ignored for the sake of dancing.

In addition, the dancers must contend with Paul Taylor himself, a man who is unequivocally revered as a choreographer and dancer, yet is strikingly human in his relationships with his dancers. Diamond takes care to unearth the complex man beneath the myth, examining how his virtual abandonment by both parents at a young age has affected not only his art, but his interaction with his company in the creation of that art. A close friend and former company member suggests that Paul's dancers are his real family; another former member reiterates this with one very astute addition, he compares the company to a dysfunctional family, with Paul the aging patriarch.

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