Analysis Of The Poem Beloved Renegade - 1108 Words

Beloved Renegade. The title itself seems contradictory; one has a hard time fathoming that a person so treacherous as a renegade could earn the affections denoted by beloved. Such is the title, however, of a certain work first presented by the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 2008. Beloved Renegade depicts the death of poet Walt Whitman. It tastefully transfigures the power of his poetry into movement. As its title foreshadows, the performance teems with contrasts. Dark and light. Fast and slow. Body and soul. Throughout the piece, pale costumes glide prominently against black backdrops. Movement fluctuates between vivacious and dreamlike. Lighting dips from bright, to shadowed, and back again. The music, Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, dips along with it. Such devices contrast the peace of death with the anguish of leaving our world. Taylor communicates this central idea through two universal human experiences: love, and suffering. The first moments of the work prepare us for these the mes. The lights go up on Whitman, our poet, alone. The opening chords allow three figures to move behind him. They move slowly, deliberately, as memories or dreams might move. First, a man. He is suffering. He is wounded. He stumbles gracefully from our sight. Next, a couple. The man lifts the woman with apparent ease as they drift across the stage. These characters will reappear later, and we will learn that they are in love, but for now it is time for Walt to introduce us to the world as he sees it.