Taylor 2 Company to Perform 3

    Christina Lynch Markham, a Westbury native, first started dancing when she was 2 in a toddler ballet class, where, she says, “I was always in a time-out. I just had too much energy.”

    Ms. Lynch Markham has come a long way from toddler dance class, including time as a competition dancer in high school, followed, after her freshman year in college, by a “summer intensive” with the Paul Taylor dance company, a premier training company for modern dance. There, she realized the inevitable end of her competitive dance career; the call of modern dance was undeniable. “The advanced way of thinking blew my mind,” she has said.

    Ms. Lynch Markham has not missed a summer intensive since, though she now serves as faculty. And she has found a place where her energy is not discouraged but valued: the Taylor 2 Dance Company. 

    She will be one of six dancers featured in Saturday’s performance by the company at Guild Hall, where three pieces will be performed. The first, “Oriole,” was choreographed by Mr. Taylor in 1962 as a “dance that was in the sunlight.” It features running, leaping, and even dancing in the wings.

    The next dance, “Dust,” was inspired by Goya paintings of people with disabilities. The final performance is “Esplanade,” Paul Taylor’s “signature work” and the first piece he choreographed after he himself stopped dancing. Ms. Lynch Markham describes the dance as athletic, with simple movements, but requiring “every fiber of your being” to perform.

    The Taylor 2 Dance Company will perform at Guild Hall on Saturday at 8 p.m.