Our new Moving Music series expands the celebrated partnership between Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Join us for three unique programs in which Act II is devoted exclusively to music, as OSL moves front and center to perform masterful music.

Menagerie Matinee

Step into the animal world for an afternoon with this fun, thrilling, and heartwarming program that brings together dance and music for audiences of all ages.

Sat Nov 5 | 2pm | BUY NOW

Gossamer Gallants (Music by Bedřich Smetana)
Peter and the Wolf (Music by Sergei Prokofiev)
Diggity (Music by Donald York)

Taylor’s Gossamer Gallants features an insect world battle of the sexes, while in Diggity the dancers skillfully maneuver Alex Katz’s canine obstacle course. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is narrated by actress, recording artist, fashion designer, and philanthropist Vanessa Williams, with instruments of the orchestra representing the different characters in the tale.

EVEN MORE FAMILY FUN! Kids and families are invited to join us after the performance for fun-tastic activities, refreshments with the dancers, and a behind-the-scenes look at the production. For more information, click here!

American Rhapsody

Taylor, Gershwin, and Keigwin capture facets of the American experience.

Sun Nov 6 | 3pm | BUY NOW
Tue Nov 8 | 7pm | BUY NOW

Company B (Songs sung by the Andrews Sisters)
Rhapsody in Blue (Music by George Gershwin)
Rush Hour (Music by Adam Crystal)

Taylor’s Company B takes us back to the 1940s, juxtaposing the soaring spirit in post-Depression America with the tragedy of soldiers fighting and dying overseas. Gershwin’s soulful and jazzy Rhapsody in Blue, featuring pianist Conrad Tao, evokes the urban energy of the Roaring 1920s while Larry Keigwin’s Rush Hour depicts a wildly pulsating streetscape a century later.

ICONS: Taylor, Glass, Jooss

Masterworks by three of the world’s most highly acclaimed artists.

Thu Nov 10 | 7pm | BUY NOW
Sat Nov 12 | 8pm | BUY NOW

Arden Court (Music by William Boyce)
Suite from The Hours (Music by Philip Glass)
The Green Table (Music by Fritz Cohen)

Taylor’s Arden Court features the Company’s legendary exuberance and elan. The Suite from The Hours is a haunting Oscar-nominated score by renowned American composer Philip Glass. The Green Table, created by Kurt Jooss in the 1930s between world wars, is one of the most iconic and celebrated anti-war dances of all time.

Since 2014, the Paul Taylor Dance Company has commissioned thirteen choreographers to create dynamic and innovative works that bring a fresh and diverse dimension to the stage. Artistic Director Michael Novak continues this tradition, inviting Resident Choreographer Lauren Lovette and Amy Hall Garner to each make a dance for the Company.

Lauren Lovette

Wed, Nov 2 | 7pm | BUY NOW

Gala Performance
Arden Court (Music by William Boyce)
Lovette World Premiere (Music by Ernest Bloch)

Sat, Nov 5 | 8pm | BUY NOW
Sat, Nov 12 | 2pm | BUY NOW

Company B (Songs sung by the Andrews Sisters)
Lovette World Premiere (Music by Ernest Bloch)
Syzygy (Music by Donald York) 

Lovette has been commissioned by New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, among many others. “Her choreographic sensibility, like Paul Taylor’s, encompasses both the light and the dark. It’s passionate, lush, and full of imagination.” – The New York Times

Amy Hall Garner

Thu, Nov 3 | 7pm | BUY NOW
Fri, Nov 11 | 8pm | BUY NOW

Scudorama (Music by Clarence Jackson)
Garner World Premiere (Recordings of Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington, & Bill Evans)
Esplanade (Music by Johann Sebastian Bach)

Garner has been commissioned by Hubbard Street and Ailey II, among many others. “Her style of dance shifts constantly… and defies labeling, showing, if one chooses to blend styles, how to do it right.” – seechicagodance.org

The All Taylor series gives you the chance to enjoy nine magnificent Taylor classics.

Opening Night: All Taylor I

Tue, Nov 1 | 7pm | TICKETS ON SALE 10/17

Diggity (Music by Donald York)
Scudorama (Music by Clarence Jackson)
Esplanade (Music by Johann Sebastian Bach)

All Taylor II

Fri, Nov 4 | 8pm | BUY NOW

Arden Court (Music by William Boyce)
Gossamer Gallants (Music by Bedřich Smetana)
Company B (Songs sung by the Andrews Sisters)

All Taylor III

Sun, Nov 13 | 3pm | BUY NOW

Polaris (Music by Donald York)
Sunset (Music by Edward Elgar)
Syzygy (Music by Donald York)

In the sprightly Diggity, the dancers skillfully negotiate a stage filled with metallic canines. Gossamer Gallants ignites a hilarious battle of the sexes among insects, while Scudorama involves a darker human conflict. The exuberant Arden Court examines supportive, competitive, and flirtatious relationships. In the otherworldly Syzygy, dancers hurtle across the stage like so many celestial bodies orbiting and eclipsing each other. Polaris cleverly shows the same choreography danced twice to different music, to markedly different effect. Company B and Sunset helped define Taylor as one of history’s great war poets. Company B, through Andrews Sisters’ songs, looks back at the high spirits and painful losses of America in the 1940s, while Sunset is an achingly poignant depiction of soldiers and those they leave behind. Esplanade runs the gamut of human emotions and leaves audiences breathless and cheering as the dancers hurtle fearlessly across the stage.

Taylor X Katz

ONE NIGHT ONLY
Wed Nov 9 | 7pm | BUY NOW

Polaris (Music by Donald York)
Scudorama (Music by Clarence Jackson)
Sunset (Music by Edward Elgar)
Diggity (Music by Donald York)

World-renowned painter Alex Katz first collaborated with Paul Taylor in 1960 and designed sets and costumes for sixteen Taylor dances. The four amazing works on this program provided this incomparable artist with a canvas as large as a stage. In Polaris, Taylor’s choreography is contained within Katz’s large metal cube until the dancers burst free, and two ensembles execute the exact same steps to different music and to drastically different effect. In the sprightly Diggity, Katz’s canines form an obstacle course the dancers skillfully negotiate. The darkly dramatic Scudorama, dotted with Katz’s scudding clouds, was Taylor’s response to the looming Armageddon of the early 1960s. Sunset poignantly shows the deep camaraderie among soldiers and the devastating sense of loss felt by those they leave behind.