Taylor's Comic Muse

Sense of humor" doesn't usually top the list of qualities valuable in a professional dancer. But Lisa Viola, a dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, has built a career on hers. Her side-splitting performances in dances such as "Oh, You Kid!" and "Troilus and Cressida (Reduced)," marked by no-holds-barred screwball faces and the ease with which she conveys the basest human condition without a trace of shame, have earned her a vital role in Mr. Taylor's troupe.

Mr. Taylor, however, will soon have to find a new comic muse — Ms. Viola is retiring from performing with the company this summer, after more than 15 years onstage. The upcoming City Center run, which opens on February 28, will be her last with the company, which Mr. Taylor founded in 1954.

"I always tried to do funny dances before, but certainly when she came along, it was easier — you just turn her loose," Mr. Taylor said. He doesn't recall precisely when he noticed Ms. Viola's comic gift. It wasn't in auditions, or in her early classes at the Taylor studio, or even in her first year in the company, when she seemed to him rather serious. But once it struck him, it struck like lightning. "But she certainly has been an inspiration," Mr. Taylor said. "Not just on the comic side, but she can do anything. Lyric, menacing, ugly, and dangerous — she's very versatile."

"I love his sense of humor, so making the funny roles with him always seems easy," Ms. Viola, who plans to continue dancing in some form even after she leaves the Taylor company, said. And yet, despite her facility with Mr. Taylor's humorous dances, she has reveled in his other work as well. "His comedic stuff I have fun with, but it's the ones that reveal the soul that I find most choreographers can't do quite like he does." She names the apocalyptic, frenetic dance "Last Look" as among her favorites.

Certainly other dancers will jump into Ms. Viola's signature roles and make them their own, just as she did with those of her predecessors. "I always feel intimidated doing the classics like 'Esplanade' and 'Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal),' because of the burden of all the people who have done it — the Ruth Andriens, the Lila Yorks," Ms. Viola said, naming former company members.

Mr. Taylor's body of work has a fabled dark/light duality that Ms. Viola, in many ways, reflects in person. She sits still, speaking in a soothing low tone, and then illustrates a point with a flurry of hand gestures and faces followed by a gale of laughter. One quality Mr. Taylor admires in her is "her ability really a without a lot of verbal encouragement from me, or describing exactly what I want," he said. "She always just seems to instinctually know where to go with the piece."

Ms. Viola and fellow dancer Michael Trusnovec have been frequent performance partners for years, and display a rarefied level of compatibility.

"The enjoyment, the ease, the strength, the reliability, that safe feeling I get when I look in her eyes, and the way it feels as though she could lift herself right off the stage without me doing a thing," Mr. Trusnovec said of the qualities he enjoys in Ms. Viola's performance.

Mr. Taylor created on the two an iconic duet in "Promethean Fire" that features Ms. Viola doing a flying leap into Mr. Trusnovec's arms. At 44, Ms. Viola is more than a decade older than Mr. Trusnovec. "I forget sometimes with Michael: 'Oh yeah, you're so much younger! Carry your grandma, c'mon! Catch me!'" she said in a crotchety voice, laughing.

The nearly three-week City Center season comprises 19 dances and features two new, related, works: "De Sueños" and "De Sueños Que Se Repiten," as well as revivals such as "Musical Offering," "Byzantium," and "Black Tuesday." It culminates on March 16 with a program featuring "Lines of Loss" and "Esplanade," both of which prominently feature Ms. Viola.

"Esplanade," a beloved classic that traditionally closes the season, features a marathon's worth of walking, sprinting, and sliding. "I told them in a year I'd have to do 'Esplanade' with a Segway!" Ms. Viola said.

"It's been 15 years, and I didn't want Paul to feel that he had to kind of pull things from me," she noted, referring to the timing of her decision. "I can't imagine not dancing, but I do think it's time."