Roses

Carrie Imler and Christophe Maraval in Roses.
Photo © Angela Sterling

Music: Richard Wagner (Siegfried Idyll, 1870) and Heinrich Baermann (Adagio for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 23, 1821)
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Staging: Lila York
Costume Design: William Ivey Long
Lighting Design: Jennifer Tipton
Lighting Design Re-creation: Randall G. Chiarelli
Duration: 30 minutes
Premiere: April 10, 1985; Paul Taylor Dance Company
Pacific Northwest Ballet Premiere: 1988

Many dance patrons regard choreographer Paul Taylor’s work as a crossbreeding of Martha Graham’s style with classical ballet. Roses, choreographed in 1985, was perhaps the most balletic of all the Taylor repertoire created to that point while retaining the essential weightedness characteristic of modern dance. Unlike so many Taylor works that probe the layer of the psyche, Roses is a serene and uncomplicated expression of the many faces of romantic love.

Notes by Jeanie Thomas.