Celebrated dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor dies aged 88
Last edited Thu Aug 30, 2018, 03:40 PM - Edit history (3)
Celebrated dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor dies aged 88
Taylor, a dancer who later became one of the world’s greatest choreographers, was seen as the last of the 20th century’s titans of modern dance
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The choreographer Paul Taylor in his New York home.
Paul Taylor in his New York home. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian
The renowned dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor has died at the age of 88 due to renal failure, according to Lisa Labrado, a spokeswoman for the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
A 1992 honoree at Kennedy Center Honors and, a year later, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts by former president Bill Clinton, Taylor was a giant of American dance, and widely considered the last of the 20th century’s titans of the form. Taylor got his start in the 1950s, when he assembled a small dance troupe that performed his own works. Soon after, he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company as a soloist for seven years, maintaining his own company while working with luminaries such as Doris Humphrey, Charles Wideman, José Limón and Jerome Robbins. He also originated roles for George Balanchine, known as “the father of American dance” and co-founder of the New York City Ballet.
Taylor’s early works were provocative, particularly late-50s dances such as Duet, in which he and his pianist remained motionless, and Epic, another conceptual piece that saw Taylor move around the stage in a tailored suit. Taylor’s 1961 dance Junction, set to excerpts from Bach’s Suites for Violoncello 1 and 4, was well-received, but his breakout work was 1962’s Aureole, which saw a change of pace, with modern movements set to baroque scores.
Aureole ushered in a prolific period for Taylor, who followed it with masterpieces such as Orbs, which the New Yorker called an “epic meditation on life, death and the universe”, plus Private Domain and Lost, Found, Lost. “You know he’s always saying something,” said Allan Ullrich, the San Francisco Chronicle’s dance correspondent. “There should be two words written on his tombstone: ‘He communicated.’”
After retiring from the stage in 1974, Taylor would go on to cement his status as one of the most important and inventive figures in American dance, starting the Paul Taylor Dance Company, which has steadily worked for almost five decades and draws rapturous crowds to New York’s City Center and Lincoln Center during its annual “Taylor season”. His 147th work, Concertiana, premiered at the David H Koch Theater this past spring.
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https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/aug/30/paul-taylor-death-obituary-dancer-choreographer
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/obituaries/paul-taylor-dead.html?imp_id=546535481&action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage