Paul Taylor (choreographer)

Choreographer

• Born: July 29, 1930
• Place of Birth: Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania
• Died: August 29, 2018
• Place of Death: New York City, New York

Education:Syracuse University, Juilliard School of Performing Arts (1953)

Significance:Although he did not begin dancing until his early twenties, Paul Taylor became a major force in the international world of dance, first as a powerful dancer and later as an innovative choreographer.

Background

Paul Belville Taylor Jr. was born on July 29, 1930, in the town of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. His birth came less than a year after the catastrophic stock market crash of 1929 that led many, including Taylor’s family, to suffer great financial hardship. Hoping to improve their situation, his parents moved the family to Washington, DC, but divorced shortly after the move. His mother, who managed restaurants, struggled to care for her four children. Taylor, the youngest, spent part of his childhood in foster care and was also cared for by an older sister before being sent to boarding school.

In 1950, Taylor entered Syracuse University by merit of scholarships in art and swimming. During his sophomore year in 1952, he saw traveling dance troupes and learned about several famous dancers, including Martha Graham (1894–1991). During that year, he created his first dance piece, Hobo Ballet, and decided to pursue a career in dance. He attended the American Dance Festival in Connecticut, where the tall, well-built Taylor captured Graham’s attention.

Taylor tried to make up for his late start in the dance world. He attended the Juilliard School of Performing Arts while also taking classes at Graham’s studio. Within a year, he was performing with Graham’s company and another troupe run by Merce Cunningham (1919–2009). He also made several appearances in Broadway plays.

Taylor continued to dance as a principal dancer for others but also began creating his own style of choreography. He performed in Clytemnestra (1958), Alcestis (1960), and Phaedra (1962), all with Graham’s dance company, where he danced for seven years. He also danced with the New York City Ballet, where choreographer George Balanchine (1904–83) wrote a solo, Episode, specifically for Taylor in 1959.

Life’s Work

Taylor continued to dance for other dance companies, but also began working on his own dance troupe, forming the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954. His first original piece for his company was Seven New Dances. Taylor was intrigued by the dance possibilities in everyday motions. He even experimented with lack of movement, as in his dance piece Duets. During this performance, he and his dance partner remained absolutely motionless on the stage for four minutes. The attempt was not well received by audiences or critics but generated conversation, helping Taylor to gain visibility within the dance community.

After the Duets experiment, Taylor returned to incorporating everyday motions in his dance pieces. His early works feature such common activities as waiting for a bus or expressing impatience—performed with a dancer’s grace, quickness, and skill. Audiences enjoyed this innovative approach, and Taylor’s work grew in popularity. In 1962, he was commissioned to choreograph a piece for the American Dance Festival; the result was Aureole. Its success allowed Taylor to concentrate on choreography and his own dance troupe, where he often danced a lead role.

By 1974, Taylor had retired from dancing and focused solely on choreography. With other dancers with different skills and physiques dancing the lead roles in his performances, he was able to experiment with new ways of setting dance to music. He choreographed Esplanade in 1975, and the work is regarded as one of his best. Other projects followed, including Cloven Kingdom (1976), Sunset (1983), Speaking in Tongues (1988), Company B(1991), The Word (1998), Brief Encounters (2009), The Uncommitted (2011), To Make Crops Grow (2012), Sea Lark (2014), Death and the Damsel (2015), and The Open Door (2017). His performances incorporated music from many eras and genres; for example, Aureole used music written by George Frederic Handel (1685–1759), while Company B featured songs made famous by the Andrews Sisters in the 1940s. In all, Taylor choreographed more than 140 performances.

Taylor’s lengthy career brought him many accolades. His choreographed pieces earned Emmy Awards, and Taylor himself received the Kennedy Center Honors (1992), the National Medal of Arts (1993), and the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts (1995). His work has also been recognized in France, where he was knighted as Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1969. Further honors from the French came when Taylor was elevated to the ranks of Officier in 1984 and Commandeur in 1990. In 2000, he received the highest cultural award given by the French, the Légion d’Honneur. Taylor was also the recipient of honorary doctorate of fine arts degrees from a number of institutions, including Syracuse and Juilliard.

In 1993, Taylor founded a second troupe, Taylor Two, with dancers who frequently perform at schools and other venues where youth can be exposed to dance. In 2012, he also created an institution based at the Lincoln Center dedicated to promoting the uniquely American style of dance that he helped create. His work is performed around the world by the dancers he has trained and hundreds of others.

In 2014, as he further advanced in age, Taylor announced the beginning of a new initiative, the company Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, designed to ensure that his work would continue to live on and his dancers would continue to perform for future generations. For the first time, the company would perform a mix of classic works created by his predecessors, commissioned works by stylistically relevant contemporary choreographers, and existant modern pieces in addition to his own works in their seasons at Lincoln Center. In early 2018, it was revealed that Taylor had chosen one of his company's dancers, Michael Novak, to eventually take over as artistic director.

Taylor was featured in a documentary, Dancemaker, and authored his autobiography, Private Domain, in 1987. He also wrote several essays on his creative process, including a collection entitled Facts and Fancie, published in 2013.

Following renal failure, Taylor died on August 29, 2018, at a New York City hospital; he was eighty-eight.

Impact

Taylor became one of the defining artists and choreographers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries despite having no childhood background in dance. His ability to portray the complexities of everyday life—with its joys and sorrows, stresses and triumphs—created some of the best-loved dance performances of his time. Taylor has inspired several generations of dancers and choreographers. The dance company he established continued to thrive and in early 2024, moved to a new location in Midtown Manhattan with triple the space to accommodate expanded activities.

Bibliography

"American Dance Masters: About Paul Taylor." Public Broadcasting Corporation, October 2001, www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/paul-taylor-about-paul-taylor/719/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Berman, Janice. "Paul Taylor: Dance of Death, Dance of Life." San Francisco Classical Voice, 2013, www.sfcv.org/events-calendar/artist-spotlight/paul-taylor-dance-of-death-dance-of-life. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Hernandez, Javier C. "Paul Taylor Dance Company to Move to Midtown in Major Expansion." New York Times, 9 Jan. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/arts/dance/paul-taylor-dance-midtown-expansion.html#. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Macaulay, Alastair. "Paul Taylor Dies at 88; Brought Poetry and Lyricism to Modern Dance." The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/obituaries/paul-taylor-dead.html. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Paul Taylor: A Choreographer For All Seasons." Dance Consortium, www.danceconsortium.com/features/article/paul-taylor-a-choreographer-for-all-seasons/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Tobey, Cheryl. "Paul Taylor, Live and on Film." PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 22, no. 1, 2000, pp. 60–64.