PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY

The Paul Taylor Dance Company, established in 1954, has long been one of the world's most highly regarded performing arts companies. The 16-member Company performs Mr. Taylor's works around the world, and has appeared in more than 520 cities in 62 countries to date. Taylor 2, established in 1993, brings Mr. Taylor's dances to smaller venues around the world as well as giving master classes and teaching people of all ages the Taylor style. About Paul Taylor. In the '50s his work was so cutting edge that it was not uncommon to see confused audience members flocking to the exits, while Martha Graham dubbed him the “naughty boy” of dance. In the '60s he shocked the cognoscenti by setting his trailblazing movement to music composed two hundred years earlier, and inflamed the establishment by satirizing America’s most treasured icons. In the '70s he put incest center stage and revealed the beast lurking just below man’s sophisticated veneer. In the '80s he looked unflinchingly at intimacy among men at war and marital rape. In the '90s he warned against religious zealotry and blind conformity to authority. In the new millennium he has condemned American imperialism, lampooned feminism and looked death square in the face. And he's not through yet. Few artists of our time have had the profound impact on their art form that Paul Taylor has had on dance over six decades. People in cities and towns throughout the world have seen and enjoyed live modern dance performances due largely to the far-reaching tours he pioneered as a virtuoso dancer in the 1950s. Fifty-seven years after he made his first avant garde works, he has a collection of 134 dances performed by his own celebrated Company (now numbering 16 dancers) and the six-member Taylor 2, as well as renowned ballet and modern dance companies here and abroad. He has set movement to music so memorably that for legions it is impossible to hear certain orchestral works and popular songs and not think of his dances. He has influenced dozens of men and women who have gone on to create their own dances or establish their own troupes. As the subject of the widely seen movie, "Dancemaker," and author of a critically acclaimed autobiography, "Private Domain," he has generously shed light on the mystery of the creative process. He remains among the most sought-after choreographers working today, commissioned by leading companies, theaters and presenting organizations the world over.