The Paul Taylor Dance Company, established in 1954, is one of the world’s most sought-after dance troupes. The Company has toured extensively under the aegis of the U.S. Department of State and has represented the United States at arts festivals in more than 40 countries.
In June 1999 the Company launched a two-year Cultural Capitals of the World Tour, which took it to Santiago, Cologne, Auckland, Jakarta, Paris, Frankfurt, Kingston, Santo Domingo, Stockholm, London, Rome, Montreal, Beijing and Shanghai, among other cities. The engagement in Chile was named the Best International Dance Event of 1999 by that country’s Art Critic’s Circle.
The 2002-03 season has thus far taken the Company abroad to Brest and Bordeaux, France; Aosta, Italy; Geneva, Switzerland; and Remscheid, Germany. This visit to the United Kingdom is the Company’s seventh, the first occurring in 1964 when it performed Aureole at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
This Season is particularly notable for the commencement of annual engagements in Boston and San Francisco. The Bay Area will be the Company’s West Coast home, hosting a two-week engagement in each year through 2007. The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC also host the Company annually.
Beginning with its first television appearance for the Dance in America series in 1978, the Company has appeared on PBS in eight different programs, including the 1991 Emmy Award-winning Speaking in Tongues. More recently, the Company worked with WNET/New York to create a new Dance in America special, The Wrecker’s Ball, which includes Company B, Funny Papers, and A Field of Grass. Broadcast nationally on PBS, The Wrecker’s Ball was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1997. In 1999 the PBS American Masters series aired Dancemaker, the Academy Award-nominated documentary about the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Dancemaker is available on home video and DVD.
