Paul Taylor brings light and dark to Atlanta

• Tom Caravaglia
• Paul Taylor Dance Company in "Phantasmagoria."

You can tell a lot about a person by how they walk across a room. You can tell a lot, but Paul Taylor can probably tell even more. The giant of choreography, now 80, holds open auditions whenever there's a space in his company, and hundreds upon hundreds of hopeful dancers show up with the dream of working with this icon of American dance. He begins each session by simply asking all the participants to walk across the stage one by one. It's a process that dancer Parisa Khobdeh—who walked the walk in 2003—says was almost more intimidating and intense than dancing in the audition itself.

“It was an audition of almost 400 women,” she recalls. “He just said 'I want you all to walk across the stage. Come in every 12 counts,' and then one of Paul's dancers sort of mumbled, 'Just do whatever you want with your arms.' I remember I walked across the stage, and, being the first person, I choreographed something simple for my arms. But then I looked back, and no one was doing anything! I was the only one! I just about melted in the corner, thinking I had messed up the whole audition.”