On April 6, in one of the most anticipated events of the New York City dance season, the Paul Taylor Dance Company brings choreographer Kurt Jooss’ 1932 antiwar masterpiece The Green Table to the stage where modern dance was born – ours.
Created between the two World Wars, the German dance pioneer conceived The Green Table after seeing his country fractured by nationalism and antisemitism. In collaboration with Jewish composer F.A. Cohen, Jooss crafted a searing meditation on the folly of war. The ballet became one of the most important dance works of the 20th century. And as Russia’s assault on Ukraine persists, the continued relevance of the work remains in heartbreaking evidence.
Harkness Dance Center director Taryn Kaschock Russell danced in a 1997 restaging of The Green Table as a member of the Joffrey Ballet. “It was a profound experience for me,” she says. “My role was one of the refugees. At the beginning of our scene, when I heard the first notes from the piano, I would get chills and my eyes would well up before I even started dancing.” In considering what makes The Green Table a masterpiece, Kaschock Russell says, “The work makes an indelible impact on everyone who sees it. It is haunting, shocking, sadly universal, and one of the greatest pieces of choreography that exists. Kurt Jooss changed our viewpoint of what a choreographer can express.”
Every staging of The Green Table is a major event, and it is an honor for The 92nd Street Y to present the New York City premiere of this new production. It is also an event informed by history. The Paul Taylor Dance Company performed at The 92nd Street Y – with Taylor himself dancing – in the mid-1950s. In 1957, on the stage of Kaufmann Concert Hall, he premiered Seven New Dances, the work that marked his first breakthrough as a modern dance visionary.
The company’s historic return to Kaufmann Concert Hall with The Green Table is the result of the support and commitment of 92nd Street Y board chair and passionate modern dance advocate Jody Arnhold. It was Arnhold who connected Kaschock Russell with Paul Taylor Dance Company artistic director Michael Novak and executive director John Tomlinson just prior to the pandemic shutdown. Kaschock Russell says, “Jody hadn’t been aware of my artistic history with the work, or my deep love of the choreography. She wanted all of us to connect and dream about how 92Y might engage with this iconic masterpiece.” Last fall, as dance made its historic return to Kaufmann Concert Hall with the Harkness Mainstage Series, serious discussions began about how The Green Table might be brought to our stage. “It was nearly six months before the atrocities in Ukraine began,” says Kaschock Russell. “None of us could have predicted how eerily timely this production would be.”
Eerily, chillingly, timely. The Green Table depicts the horrors of war, the helplessness of its victims, its destruction, its futility. After the curtain calls on April 6, international policy experts Dr. Stephen Biddle and Janine di Giovanni will gather on our stage to discuss the work, its stunning relevance, and the topic of art and war in a conversation moderated by Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. Kaschock Russell says, ”We’re bringing together leading scholars to explore how art can help us reflect on terrible injustices. Following a powerful performance with an equally powerful conversation is exactly the type of intersectional experience 92Y is uniquely poised to offer.”
Further deepening the impact and reach of this production, The 92nd Street Y’s world-renowned Dance Education Laboratory (DEL), launched at The 92nd Street Y by Jody Arnhold in 2012, is collaborating with the Paul Taylor Dance Company to create a six-lesson curriculum for NYC middle and high school public school students – Contemplating War & Peace: Perspectives on The Green Table – bringing the work and its messages to a new generation.
Kaufmann Concert Hall is being transformed to accommodate the upcoming production, with three rows of seats being removed to allow for the stage extension required. The striking score features two grand pianos on stage and will be performed live, with musicians including members of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Reflecting on what Kurt Jooss created and the collective belief that he knew he was doing something important with this work, Kaschock Russell says, “I think he felt that if people saw it, they would understand the futility of the death and destruction. He spoke to it all with urgency and with empathy, as if saying, ‘See this. Feel this. Hopefully it will change something.’”
The Paul Taylor Dance Company in Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table – one night only, April 6, 2022, 7:30 pm. The event is also available for streaming for 72 hours from the start of the performance.
This performance is made possible thanks to major support from Jody and John Arnhold | Arnhold Foundation.