A pleasingly full portrait of an important American artist, struggling to work in an ever-endangered field.
Dancemaker (1998)
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Synopsis:
Paul Taylor has been hailed as the world's greatest living choreographer, having created a stunning body of dance work over the last forty years. When the curtain opens on the Paul Taylor Dance Company, audiences see a troupe of dancers soaring through the works of this formidable genius....
Paul Taylor has been hailed as the world's greatest living choreographer, having created a stunning body of dance work over the last forty years. When the curtain opens on the Paul Taylor Dance Company, audiences see a troupe of dancers soaring through the works of this formidable genius. However, behind the scenes lies a complex world of ambition, emotion, creation, and hard-nosed decisions.
Dancemaker is a film that tells the tale of this extraordinary, peculiarly American company. Cutting from stage to backstage, the film looks at the rise of Taylor from solitary child to star dancer to master choreographer. It is filled with both historic and contemporary footage of Taylor's remarkable creations and the wonderful dancers who have performed them. Interviews with current and past members of the company give the audience glimpses of the pain, joy, obsession and love that motivate the artists. The film travels with Taylor and Company from the rehearsal studio to an embassy-sponsored tour of India through a strike-threatened Broadway season. And finally, it gets to the core of Taylor's talent, as he wrestles with the making of a new dance that is the centerpiece of his company's season and of the film. -- © Artistic License Films
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
DVD Info
Release:
May 2, 2002
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Additional Release Material:
- Production Notes
- Biographies - Select Dancers
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Complete Paul Taylor Dance Company Repertory
Reviews
Only a director entranced with dance could have made a documentary as fresh and fine as this one about choreographer Paul Taylor.
. . . not only one of the finest documentaries ever made on dance, it's one of the most superlative documentaries of the nineties.


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