Paul Taylor Dancer Michael Trusnovec Announces Retirement

Michael Trusnovec, 20-year veteran with the Paul Taylor Dance Company (PTDC) will retire from dancing with the Company in June 2019. His final performances will be during Orchestra of St. Luke's Bach Festival. Mr. Trusnovec will continue to serve as Associate Rehearsal Director through June.

Mr. Trusnovec was appointed Director of Worldwide Licensing in Summer 2018 and will remain in this role following his retirement while pursuing additional outside artistic and curatorial endeavors.

"I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to visit with Paul this past June to tell him of my intent to retire from dancing with the Company, and to thank him for an incredible two-decade career dancing his magnificent dances, and for the wealth of time we shared in the studio creating important work," said Mr. Trusnovec.

"The Bach Festival with Orchestra of St. Luke's feels like the perfect moment to have my farewell performance, at home in New York City," he continued. "The program is filled with many of Paul's great dances and I'm thrilled to be dancing in both Pam Tanowitz's and Margie Gillis's premieres. It is also very significant to me that the final dance I will perform with the Company, Cascade, is the first work Paul created on me in 1999."

In December, Mr. Trusnovec will receive a 2018 Dance Magazine Award, joining previous Taylor awardees Paul Taylor, Bettie de Jong, Carolyn Adams, David Parsons and Kate Johnson. He will be Artist in Residence at the 2019 American Dance Festival, staging Mr. Taylor's Esplanade, as well as teaching and performing.

Mr. Trusnovec, from Yaphank, New York began dancing at age six. He graduated from the Long Island High School for the Arts, and in 1992 was honored by YoungARTS and named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. In 1996, he earned a B.F.A. in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University. Mr. Trusnovec spent two years in Taylor 2 and became a member of PTDC in 1999. He has appeared with Cortez & Co. Contemporary/Ballet, Corbin Dances and in works by Margie Gillis, Christopher Gillis and Peter Sparling. Mr. Trusnovec was the recipient of a 2006 Bessie Award and was honored with a 2016 "Positano Premia La Danza" Dancer of the Year Award.

About the Paul Taylor Dance Company:
The Paul Taylor Dance Company is one of the world's most highly acclaimed and sought-after performing arts ensembles. Founded in 1954 by choreographer Paul Taylor, PTDC was led by Mr. Taylor until his death at 88 in 2018, after which dancer Michael Novak became Artistic Director. The Company performs Mr. Taylor's repertoire, comprising 147 dances, as well as those by other choreographers, and has toured to more than 500 cities in 64 countries around the globe. The 2019 Season marks PTDC's 65th Anniversary.

Photo by Paul B. Goode

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