Paul Taylor Paul Taylor was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 29, 1930. Taylor attended Syracuse University in the late 1940s on a swimming scholarship. He continued swimming for a year before discovering dance through one if his many hobbies, reading. Taylor often read in the university’s library. From there, Paul Taylor would then transfer to The Juilliard School of dance, drama, and music. In 1954, Taylor formed a small company of dancers and began to choreograph. Even though he was a late dancer, he joined the Martha Graham dance company a year after forming his own company. Taylor continued his career as a soloist (a performer who dances by himself) for seven years whilst also trying to choreograph his own dance troupe. …show more content…
The first dance, Aureole, was his first newspaper hit. His former teacher, Martha Graham, said “Taylor was the naughty boy of dancing”. His other six dances were unnamed, however all six were the best dances of that year. In 1959, Taylor was invited to be a guest artist with the New York Ballet. At that time the New York ballet were considered one of the best dance troupes in America, and for Taylor to be invited to dance with them was a great honor. While Taylor danced with the ballet he was introduced to the prolific, amazing, and styled father of ballet, George Balanchine. Taylor and Mr Balanchine began working together, and eventually Balanchine choreographed Taylor’s breakout solo, ‘Episodes’. After this solo performance and the seven breakout dances Taylor had choreographed, he became a popular, go-to choreographer for young dancers. In 1963, Taylor and his troupe danced ‘Scudorama’. This was originally choreographed 200 years before Taylor’s version by an unknown group. Two years after ‘Scudorama’, Taylor choreographed a great piece, ‘From Sea to Shining Sea’, which featured many soon to be dance icons. Even though this piece was controversial in 1970, Taylor and his troupe choreographed ‘Big Bertha’ which was the performance that gave Taylor his