Stepping Out

Dancing through the intricacies of life

Paul Taylor Dance Company visits Adelphi this weekend

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Paul Taylor Dance
The acclaimed troupe brings its virtuosity and style to the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center stage in a dynamic program that highlights its renowned repertoire. The performance includes the high energy of “Syzygy,” where dancers hurtle across the stage like celestial bodies orbiting and eclipsing one another, and the beautiful “Brandenburgs,” celebrating the good things in life. It concludes with the powerful “Sunset,” a heart-wrenching look at soldiers and the girls they meet who mourn their passing — which, according to The New York Times, first marked Paul Taylor as “one of the great war poets.”
Friday, May 8, 7:30 p.m. $40 and $45. Adelphi University Performing Arts Center, 1 South Ave., Garden City. (516) 877-4000 or boxoffice@adelphi.edu.

Evening of One-Act Plays
Playwright Thorton Wilder comes into focus on the Nassau Community College stage, presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance. The first production of the evening, “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden,” clearly anticipates his best-known work, “Our Town.” The journey of the title refers to a family whose members travel to visit their daughter/sister. It’s a trip punctuated by talk, laughter and memories, both happy and painful. “The Long Christmas Dinner” reflects Wilder’s unique use of dramatic devices. The action of the play reflects 90 years of growth and change in the Bayard home and America over the course of a succession of Christmas dinners. It has a tender, human quality that is both forceful and appealing. Both plays are at the same time uniquely American in sensibility and universal in their humanity.
Thursday through Saturday, May 7-9, 8 p.m.; Sunday, May 10, 3 p.m. $9, $7 seniors. Nassau Community College’s Little Theatre, Garden City. (516) 572-7676.