I was very excited to see Paul Taylor Dance Company perform again. Last year’s program featuring the brilliant yet maddeningly undefinable piece De Suenos (of dreams) had me very impressed with the company and I was ready for another amazingly surreal journey. Instead, it started with a watered down comedic throwback followed by two pieces that could have come from completely different companies. I love versatility as much as the next person, but this year’s program gave me whiplash.

The opening piece The Sorcerer’s Sofa was like a stale left-over from last year’s dreams. It was about a young man who is frightened of women and the sorcerer/phrenologist who attempts to cure him. As the sorcerer bangs his client’s head to clear the bad thoughts away, his mind conjures up a red bat-winged she-beast with multiple hanging mammaries who chases him around frantically as the two men fight it off. The dancing is more slap-stick and pantomime than classical movement until the she-beasts multiply into an evil taunting chorus and begin to truly dance. However, that doesn’t last long and eventually the two men fight them all off — one to the death — with the help of the sofa of the title, the only female dancer who is not a she-beast, but a blue upholstered “chaste lounge,” as the pun in the program describes her. In fairness, I must say that the older adult audience around me chucked appreciatively throughout this piece, but I just couldn’t wait for it to end.

What came next however was refreshing and absolutely delightful. Changes was choreographed to six songs by the iconic 60’s band The Mamas and The Papas. In less than thirty minutes it managed to summarize all the major points of the decade: revolution, rebellion, protests, open sexuality and feminism, experimental drug use and hippies. It was like someone did the Sparks version of Hair and I loved it! The dancing had care-free energy, deep emotion, and at times self-deprecating humor. It was definitely the highlight of the evening.

The last piece was Promethean Fire with music by Johann Sebastian Bach (Toccata & Fugue in De minor, Prelude in E-flat minor). The program quotes Shakespeare; “fire that thy light relume.” The dancers were all in simple unitards with a curling shade of contrast accenting their body lines. It helped define the shapes they made in perfect synchronization –coiling structures, layers of limbs and a bonfire pile of bodies with two eternal flames always reemerging and sometimes splitting off into multiple couples. It was very beautiful to watch but it was not radically different from other modern pieces I have seen with other companies and of course it lacked the more literal storyline of Changes. I did enjoy it, but once again I felt abruptly jolted into another style and I wasn’t fully prepared to go along with the mood.

There is much talent and artistry to appreciate in the Paul Taylor Dance Company, but to really take it all in, it helps to bring your own multiple personalities. Still, I’ll be back next year for more.