(SUMMIT, NJ) -- New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble’s spring performance of ¡BALLI di PRIMAVERA! The Dances of the Spring returns for its 53rd Anniversary Season April 30th & May 1st at NJDTE Studios. One of the pieces to be performed by the acclaimed pre-professional company includes the iconic Paul Taylor work “Cloven Kingdom” staged by former Paul Taylor dancer Michelle Fleet. 

"Learning a Masterwork like CLOVEN KINGDOM provides physical insight to Mr. Taylor’s unique movement, detailed musicality, and brilliant patterning in space," says NJDTE Artistic Director Nancy Turano. “My heart was illuminated, when the Corelli music filled the room and the dancers started to learn this genius work by American Modern Master, Paul Taylor. We are grateful to Michelle Fleet, Michael Trusnovec, Richard Chen See and Paul Taylor Foundation for this opportunity. It is so valuable to preserve his legacy and share this work with the next generation of artists.”

In addition to her 20-year tenure at Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ms. Fleet, has worked with renowned artist and companies such as Bill T. Jones, Merce Cunningham, Doug Elkins, Doug Varone, Corbin Dances, and Kyle Abraham. “Working with the dancers at NJDTE is truly a pleasure as they are all very talented, professional in their work ethic, hungry for information and full of energy, all of which is nurtured by Nancy Turano.  Staging these excerpts of Cloven Kingdom has been wonderful, the dancers dove headfirst into this dense work.  They are committed to learning and understanding Mr. Taylor’s style and timeless choreography. It is a gift to work with them and I hope to leave them with a wonderful Taylor experience”, says Ms. Fleet.

Cloven Kingdom was first performed on June 9, 1976. “The scene is a cotillion ball where members of high society are dressed in formal attire – the gentlemen in tailcoats and the ladies wearing gowns and mirrored headpieces. A baroque score vies for dominance with urgent, percussive 20th-Century music, reflecting the struggle between our gentler and more savage natures. As primitive impulses emerge, the women plant seeds and bear progeny, while the men seem no longer to wear tails but bear tails. They prance and stalk on all fours, and their totemic friezes suggest the prehistoric ancestors from whom we have descended. Although the dance ends on a triumphant note with social structures intact, it has become clear that we are not separate from animals, we are animals.” – Courtesy of Paul Taylor American Modern Dance

The performances are at New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble Studios, 315b Springfield Ave, Summit, NJ on Saturday, April 30th at 2:00pm and 5:00pm and Sunday May 1st at 3:00pm. 

PAUL TAYLOR AMERICAN MODERN DANCE: Mr. Taylor is a quintessential modernist, rebelling against convention and always looking toward the future. As he continued to embrace new challenges, in 2012 Mr. Taylor moved the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s annual New York City performances to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, one of the world’s greatest cultural centers. The first modern dance company to call Lincoln Center home, it attracted larger audiences and higher ticket revenue there than ever before.

Paul Taylor American Modern Dance has become a standard of excellence in the presentation of modern dance in New York City, and Mr. Taylor has made great strides in creating a home to celebrate the magnificent history of modern dance as well as ensuring its successful future. 

New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble celebrates 53 years of providing artistic excellence in pre-professional dance education and performances, with forward-thinking programming that empowers dancers by engaging acclaimed artists and international choreographers. Led by award-winning Artistic Director Nancy Turano since 1994, NJDTE mentors and inspires dancers toward higher education and supports its alumni as professionals in the field. 

Photos courtesy New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble