Many who saw Micaela Taylor perform over the past several years knew that this young woman was extremely talented. She is tall, long limbed and stunning to watch perform. I knew that I wanted to interview her when she stepped out on her own as a choreographer and showed Los Angeles that she also had great potential as a dance maker. Since that interview in February of 2018, Micaela Taylor has continued to grow artistically, and the rest of the world has taken notice. She received the inaugural Springboard Danse Montreal EMERGE Choreographic Award in 2018 and as a part of the prize Taylor will create a new work for Gibney Dance Company NY, in their 2018/19 season. She has been commissioned to create works for BODYTRAFFIC, Cleo Park Robinson Dance Company and Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company. Taylor’s company, The TL Collective, was invited to perform this summer at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow and Dance Magazine included Taylor on the 2019 list of “25 to Watch”.
Micaela Taylor – Photo by Jobel Medina
Most recently here in Los Angeles, Taylor was Artist-in-Residence at the John Anson Ford Theatres. The TL Collective was able to rehearse on stage and given financial support to allow the company to pay dance artists for both rehearsals and performance. I attended the premiere performance at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday, March 30, 2019 and it was an excellent investment for The Ford Theatres Organization because Taylor created a stunning, powerful and insightful new work titled DRIFT.
To the sound of an electronic music drone, the work opened with dancer Matt Luck cautiously crawling across the stage as Taylor slowly break-walked nearby. The tension built even further as the rest of the five-member cast walked defiantly toward the audience and then on both diagonals. The drone disappeared and we heard a male voice (Brandon Mathis) ask “Drift. What does it mean?” He proceeded to state numerous definitions and examples of the word, which, as the work progressed, Taylor visualized with her choreography.
In previous reviews, I have stated that Taylor has created her own unique movement vocabulary, and she has since honed and expanded it to voice her ideas of the human experience. One element in DRIFT that I found quite poignant was how Taylor would express a sense of security within a relationship and then mash that feeling of safety into little pieces, leaving its recipients in emotional turmoil. Taylor used a movement that has become a recurring one in her work. It was a body being dragged across the stage into a different environment or alternate reality. This is not overused, but it is an action that I have seen occur in several of her dances.
DRIFT was full of beautiful movement phrases that crashed and fell apart, as well as weaving from chaos into brief unison phrases that told us that we all share in the drifting from one emotion to another; sometimes minute to minute or day to day. We got to see the individual strengths of each performer before they were absorbed back into different situation. What Taylor also exposed was that life is constantly shifting, changing, going from bad to worse or into a feeling that we are experiencing the best moment of a life time. What Taylor left us with was a hope that we would take on those battles, enjoy the good times and never give up during those times that feel insurmountable.
The Ford Amphitheatre is set in a wondrous setting, surrounded by hills, trees and an ever-moving sky above. This performance took place at 5pm and therefore DRIFT had a lot of physical elements that vied to distract one from seeing the dance. Like many post Cunningham choreographers, Taylor also challenged us with inventive uses of the Ford Amphitheatre stage. It was a contest that I personally enjoyed and a test that I felt Taylor won. She knew how to direct the audience’s eye toward what she felt important but allowed them to make their own decisions as to who or what to focus on. It was a theme that spoke directly to the essence of DRIFT’s intent. We make choices and life constantly challenges our decisions.
Aided by an ever-shifting music score that included spoken word, blues, electronic music and more, DRIFT was intense, filled with intentionally awkward moments and sprinkled with humor just when we needed it. An emotional statement was sometimes made through a complex set of movements and then with a repetitive jutting forward and back of a dancer’s head while everyone else on stage was perfectly still. DRIFT can only get stronger.
Following the performance, I was chatting with a colleague and we agreed that one thing that we love about the dancers in Los Angeles is their ability to dance many different styles. LA dance has become a fusion of those styles and Micaela Taylor’s work required her cast to perform several of them: break dancing moves, ballet and contemporary dance. Those dance artists who did so brilliantly were Jenn Lacy, Matt Luck, Micaela Taylor, Jessie Lee Thorne, and Gigi Todisco.
For information on Micaela Taylor + The TL Collective, click here.
For information about the John Anson Ford Theatres, click here.
To read my February 2018 interview with Micaela Taylor, click here.
Coming up this month: Los Angeles Dance Festival 4/12-14 at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex and FRINGE 4/26-28 at the Diavolo Performance Space – for information and tickets, click here.
Featured image: Jenn Lacy, Micaela Taylor, Jessie Lee Thorne in Taylor’s DRIFT – Photo by Renae Wootson, courtesy of Ford Theatres.
