Former Paul Taylor Company Dancers Attend the DeSales University Dance Concert
On Friday, March 18, two members of the original cast of Paul Taylor’s Cloven Kingdom attended the DeSales University Dance Ensemble Concert to see the DeSales production of this classic dance.
Ruth Andrien O’Neill, former dancer at the Paul Taylor company, and Carolyn Adams, former Taylor dancer and director of education at the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, met Annamarie Mazzini, who was the regisseur for DeSales’ Cloven Kingdom, and Julia Mayo, chair of the dance department at DeSales and artistic director of the concert, to see the student performance.
“I loved the whole show,” said O’Neill. “Cloven was wonderful. It was moving to see the dancers’ pride in their hard work. They were radiant! What a great way to celebrate spring.”
The DeSales production of Cloven Kingdom was an all-female staging of Taylor’s 1976 work. It offers the theme that humans have animal natures that lurk just below the surface. A baroque music score contrasts with modern percussive music as the dancers, formally attired, veer between a waltz and modern dance steps that are not typical.
