TAYLOR 2 to Bring Legendary Dance to NKU This October

Northern Kentucky University / School of the Arts / Program of Theatre and Dance presents a one-night-only performance by TAYLOR 2.

Repertory:

Junction

(pause)

Roses Duet

The Uncommitted

Company B

Northern Kentucky University

Fine Arts Center / Corbett Theatre

Friday, October 9, at 8:00PM

Tickets: $10 (General); $8 (Students)

TAYLOR 2 will present a program comprising a unique window into Paul Taylor's extensive repertoire -- now numbering 142 dances! Paul Taylor is one of this country's legendary choreographers and a pioneer of modern dance culture. His choreography is known for its physicality and grace, as well as its cultural relevance. In selecting repertoire for TAYLOR 2 (established in 1993), he chooses dances that span the broad spectrum of his work. Several of the dances performed by TAYLOR 2 have been re-worked from the Paul Taylor Dance Company's version to enable the smaller ensemble of dancers to perform them. Critics and audiences cheer as TAYLOR 2 introduces the athleticism, humor, and range of emotions found in Mr. Taylor's work to audiences around the world. Taylor 2 has had engagements in over 400 cities, 46 states, and as far as Africa and Asia.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

One of the seminal artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries, Paul Taylor continues to shape the homegrown American art of modern dance that he has helped define since he became a professional dancer and pioneering choreographer in 1954. After 60 years as Artistic Director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, he blazed a new trail in 2014 by establishing an institutional home for the art form: Paul Taylor's American Modern Dance. Mr. Taylor will curate and present great modern dances of the past and present alongside his own works at Lincoln Center and other preeminent venues throughout the world, nurturing a new generation of choreographers so that modern dance flourishes long into the future. Mr. Taylor first gained notoriety as a dance maker in 1957 with Seven New Dances and has since received nearly every important honor given to artists in the United States. In 1992 he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and received an Emmy Award for Speaking in Tongues, produced by WNET/New York the previous year. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1993. In 1995 he received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts and was named one of 50 prominent Americans honored in recognition of their outstanding achievement by the Library of Congress's Office of Scholarly Programs. He is the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from California Institute of the Arts, Connecticut College, Duke University, The Juilliard School, Skidmore College, the State University of New York at Purchase, Syracuse University, and Adelphi University. Awards for lifetime achievement include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. Other awards include the New York State Governor's Arts Award and the New York City Mayor's Award of Honor for Art and Culture. In 1989 Mr. Taylor was elected one of ten honorary members of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Having been elected to knighthood by the French government as Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1969 and elevated to Officier in 1984 and Commandeur in 1990, Mr. Taylor was awarded France's highest honor, the Légion d'Honneur, in 2000 for exceptional contributions to French culture. Today Mr. Taylor's dances are performed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the six-member Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company (begun in 1993), and companies throughout the world including the Royal Danish Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Ruth Andrien became Rehearsal Director of Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company in 2010. She danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1974 to1983, originating roles in such works as Esplanade, Runes, Airs, Images and Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal). She has restaged Mr. Taylor's work for professional companies and universities around the world. Ms. Andrien has been on the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Swarthmore College, Harvard University, MIT, Southern Methodist University, The School at Jacobs Pillow, New York State Summer School of the Arts, The Taylor School and the American Dance Festival, where she directed the Paul Taylor Project for the past three years. She has worked closely with The American Dance Legacy Institute at Brown University, which focuses on preservation and access to American dance heritage. She served as master teacher for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts in Miami and for the U.S. State Department's cultural exchange program in Tunisia. She was the recipient of Towson University's Rosenberg Award for Distinguished Artists in 2002 and the Balasaraswati/ Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching in 2009 with Carolyn Adams and Sharon Kinney. Ms. Andrien received her MFA in Dance at Hollins University in 2007.

For more information call the NKU School of the Arts Box Office at 859.572.5464.

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