Dance is a "human" Art!

It is the end of March, and I wanted to write an entry about all that I have been doing since the start of this year. March 1, 2025 was my first post on this blog and, as with life, a lot has changed. I am still debating with myself on maintaining this blog, as my original intent was to let readers know about my background and approach to dance pedagogy. As of today, I find myself writing about why dance continues to intrigue me since taking my first dance class as a child. 

2008 studio shoot with Lois Greenfield!

Yesterday, March 29, 2026 the sad news of Ben Stevenson passing away spread rapidly through social media. I could not help but think of the numerous dancers, directors, teachers, and technicians I have met and worked with over the years who had all crossed paths with Mr. Stevenson with nothing but great things to say about his impact on their lives and their art. I never had the privilege of meeting him, and yet I empathize with the sense of loss expressed by so many who knew and worked with Stevenson. For me, the legacy of individuals lives on in the impact they had on those around them. A dance legacy ripples through the performers who dance the creative output of choreographers, and whose technique and stagecraft embodies the nuturing from their teachers and coaches. 

Ben Stevenson (copied from Texas Ballet Theater online memoriam)

Dance is a discipline and an Art that is passed on through human interaction, both in its learning process, and in its execution. Choreographers shape the use of movement and technique to express emotions, intents, actions, responses, and create moods through how groups and individuals interact. The genius of some choreographers is how they construct dances that can be felt by audiences without verbal explanations, and how dancers become artists through their embodiment of the choreography. 

In Taylor's "Offenbach Overtures" with Tom Patrick, Andrew Asnes, Patrick Corbin
(photo: Lois Greenfield)

I am not meaning to dismiss the role that music, light and design can play into how dance is an art. However, I do believe that audiences return to witness exceptional dance for its ability to communicate on the most visceral level before words, or even sound, or touch. 

circa 1989 with Michael Armstrong (photo: unknown)

In natural environments, as best as I can currently surmise, that which you can spot from afar can be a striking "first impression". Searching for edible fruit or mushrooms in a jungle, Spotting an exotic orchid in the canopy layer of a rainforest, identifying a red-tailed hawk in a city skyline, and catching a glimpse of a moray eel retreating into a coral reef are all instances where what we see attracts our attention before we can hear, smell or touch the surroundings of what might draw our attention. Similarly, those of us with the privilege of sight use it throughout our lives to identify people we find attractive, avoid volatile situations when we see altercations happening, heed our biases for self-protection based on the appearances of strangers, and so much more. 

Dance is an art of body control in service as much for communication as it is for finding the limits of human ability and coordination. Even the most exceptional of us are benefitted by the encouragement and talents of observant teachers, perspicuous coaches able to explain intent and concepts, inspirational choreographers able to impart their ideas in some way. For me, Christopher Gable was amongst the most influential of my teachers and coaches, and Paul Taylor definitely defined so much of how I "see" choreography in the concert dance world. 

1991, Christopher Gable receives Manchester Evening News award
(photo: Linda Rich)

I think most people currently know of Ilia Malinin as one of the most exceptionally talented competitive figure skaters in the world. He did not get there alone. His parents Roman Skornyakov and Tatiana Malinina, along with Rafael Arutyunyan form his coaching team. While we cheer on the performer that is Malinin, I doubt that he will forget that his coaching team are a big part of why he is a cultural idol of today. 

Yuma Kagiyama, Ilia Malinin, Shun Sato - 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships

Dance also reflects our humanity and or mortality in reflecting an evergreen theme in books and dialogue in plays, movies and dramatic series. The year I retired from dancing with Paul Taylor, I read a book that had just been published titled, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now by Gordon Livingston, M.D. Before you get into the lucid exposition within this book, my memory of the title was to look it up as, "Too Soon Old, Too Late Young". Hah. Irrespective, it highlights the human condition of gaining our life-wisdom almost too late for having the youth and vitality to enjoy the knowledge. In dance we get to embody the wisdom of those who came before us. Many a time, dancers are far more able-bodied than choreographers who dream up what might be possible when they cannot attempt such things themselves, not just in physical terms, but in the effectiveness of dramatic craft. 

James Samson and Paul Taylor (screenshot from "Creative Domain" documentary)

Watching the most recent episode of "The Pitt" on HBO Max, an aged man navigating his loss of independence due to age made the following comment along the lines of (I paraphrase), "Every old person knows what it is to be young, but no young person can know what it is to be old. Thank you for listening." As a dancer well past the performing abilities of my youth, I see the potential in almost every young dancer with whom I work teaching or coaching. And it is not necessarily for those young artists to understand my perspective, but I hope they trust in the wisdom of those who look to see them as they are in the moment. We wish them only the best in their performances and growth as artists. 

I think of dance teachers, choreographers, and coaches as cultural mentors to children, young dancers, and professionals. Some of the most influential of the above have a talent to bring the development of their own gifts to bear on those they have touched throughout their lives. As dancers, we celebrate our beloved mentors with how we move, perform, and give of ourselves to future generations in ways that go beyond words.

Every moment counts...

 It has long been said that "every moment counts" and I take that to mean that "every moment is different". A photograph is a moment in time, a literal split second. If the exposure were to be a whole second, the subject would be blurry. 

2023 studio shot by Fabrice Herrault

I enjoy watching many sports, and during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano/Cortina, there were many instances when tenths and one hundredths of a second were deciding factors. I wonder if those athletes actually feel time in atomic increments, or is it more that they know when they have had the least number or miscalculations that may have slowed their "perfect" run. Surely, their training over the years of their lives have constituted more moments than any human brain could be expected to recount and consider in the time of their given race/routine/game. And then we have to consider how our bodies "feel" different from moment to the other, much less one year to the next!

March 1, 2025 was when I wrote and published the first entry on this blog, and I have been considering whether or not to keep writing and publishing content. I don't have a large readership, and I have not been strategically attempting to build one. However, I have discovered that it is an easy place to make note of what I was thinking at the time of building a post. In the early posts I was concerned about getting noticed, and felt compelled to find images of myself, as few of the other people appearing in pictures/videos have been enlisted directly to be included on my musings. For now, I may write fewer posts, but I will continue to share them on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin, when I do find the time and inclination.

Controversies of scoring systems, in-person attendance versus online viewing, et al aside, artistic figure skating as a discipline did bring my thoughts back to concert dance and my particular role in managing the reconstruction of Paul Taylor's choreography for dance companies, training institutions, and audiences. And for the sake of time, I want to focus on how a single moment (more loosely defined than a fraction of a second) can stand out and "stick" in your mind for most of your life.

The figure skaters I grew up watching on television were John Curry, Torvill and Dean, Robin Cousins, and so many others. However, in 1979, I was living in the UK and got to watch Robin Cousins' free skate in the European  Figure Skating Championships. Cousins actually won the silver medal behind Jan Hoffman (East Germany), but there was a specific element in Cousins' routine that caught my attention, and I have never forgotten how beautiful I thought it was, even witnessing it on a televised broadcast. He starts gliding backwards in a spiral on one edge, then seamlessly switched edges while also switching direction to gliding forward in the spiral. I recall seeing it being filmed from an elevated angle, but this clip is what I found on a quick YouTube search. 

1979 European Championships - Robin Cousins spiral clip.

I have looked for this small element in other skaters' routines, but Cousins is the only skater I have seen use it in such a fashion, and with such a sense of ease. My point is that this movement only lasts for a couple of seconds, yet Cousins' performance of this singular move has remained with me, while I had forgotten practically all other details about watching the competition.

From both on the stage as a dancer, and in the audience watching, I feel fortunate to have experienced a few similar "moments" that transcended time and events. These are the moments that I hope future dancers and audiences will have a chance to be similarly surprised for themselves. I have heard from dancers and audiences how Taylor's dances have provided such moments for them.

I work with, and manage the contracts for, about a dozen alumni dancers of Paul Taylor Dance Company, all of whom are from the generations that worked for Paul Taylor while he was still alive; many are even amongst the original cast on whom Taylor created the dances needing to be taught / coached / mounted onto the stage for organizations mentioned above. Each of us has a unique perspective on the same work, and we can all bring about trancendent moments by the dancers and productions because of our differences. As a "director" I try to provide as much support material and history on the dances in question for myself and other stagers, to provide integrity for the roles, the steps, and the intent of the dance as a whole. Also, we had the privilege of Taylor himself rehearsing us in multiple revivals of dances from his repertoire throughout the decades. How each of us gets to the "end product" is pretty unique to us as individuals, and it is the feedback from the institutions and the performances that helps determine the relevance and necessity of Taylor's dances for today and for the future.

In 2026 there are multiple productions of Taylor's "Company B" being performed by different companies. The productions have been, or will be staged variously by Patrick Corbin, Constance Dinapoli, Amy Kleinendorst and myself, all around the USA. 

Diablo Ballet performed "Company B" in Walnut Creek, California!

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre performed "Company B" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

Texas Ballet Theater performs "Company B" in both Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas!

Nevada Ballet Theatre performs "Company B" in Las Vegas, Nevada!

How a dance evolves in memory and in details...

In 2026 alone, Paul Taylor's Company B, set to 1940's music sung by The Andrews Sisters, will have been performed by five different companies around the USA, other than Paul Taylor Dance Company itself. I would love to see all of the productions and witness the many artistic variances that come to light with different dancers, stagers and production venues. But time and distance are barriers to such aspirations. 

Screen capture of me dancing "Pennsylvania Polka" with Annmaria Mazzini circa 2000

In truth, I believe that many audience members would be fascinated to see two different companies perform the same dance, and have! If you are a fan of George Balanchine, I imagine you might have seen more than one company perform his Serenade or maybe one section (if not the whole ballet) of Jewels, performed by different ballet companies. 

Beloved company member Mark Arvin made the role of Bugle Boy his own when Houston Ballet premiered the landmark work Company B, choreographed by modern dance legend Paul Taylor at The Kennedy Center in 1991.
- The Washington Post (review)

Dances are living "documents" which can evolve and mature as they are danced, and as they are viewed. Those of us who are charged with restaging the works are similar to movie or stage directors. We need to have a clear understanding of intent, musicality, physical patterns in space, and dramatic rhythm from beginning to end of the dance. And, of course, an intimate familiarity with the steps. I often equate steps to being like words in a script, and how those steps are executed can be like coaching a linguistic accent and eliciting the underlying emotions behind the "words" so they can be felt by an audience. Every dancer is different, and casting as well as their natural abilities as performers will hopefully make evident the best pairing for dancers to roles within a dance. I have culled images from the internet and the reviews of the world premiere of Company B, which was commissioned by The Kennedy Center for Houston Ballet. Based on a special initiative from The Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts, Company B would join the repertoire of five additional American ballet companies within a few years in Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Boston.

Jeff Wadlington was the dancer who originated Bugle Boy for Paul Taylor Dance Company. Photo: Jack Mitchell

Company B is never long out of rotation at Paul Taylor Dance Company, and it is one of the perennial dances which most dancers in the company have performed, often in various different roles. With each revival of the work, Taylor would look at the dancers in front of him and sometimes make changes to little details. I won't presume to know what he was thinking at any given time, but he would often say that changes were for the benefit of the dancers in front of him, and for the clarity of his intent with the choreography. So, understanding the history of how the dance has evolved under Taylor's own eyes is a good start to making informed artistic decisions about the details, when teaching the work to a new generation of dancers. 

"Oh Johnny Oh!" performed by Paul Taylor Dance Company and by Houston Ballet.

Sometimes the details of which I speak are things like the accessories worn by soloists for specific songs. You might notice that in both of the premiere photos fo Houston Ballet, the men are wearing a cap. And Santo Loquasto, who designed the costumes, removed the caps from the costume list shortly after the premiere. Then a few years later, Santo added a pair of black-rimmed glasses for the man dancing "Oh Johnny Oh!". Another costume detail is that the woman dancing in "Rum and Coca-Cola" only has a skirt with a red lining while dancing that song. During the rest of the dance, she wears a pair of pants. In the original production this woman was the only one with any kind of hair accessory, and later, Santo added small pops of red color in the hair for all the women. 

"Rum and Coca-Cola" was originated by Mary Cochran for Paul Taylor Dance Company, and when American Ballet Theatre premiered the work it was danced by Misty Copeland.

The above mentioned details were noted by several dancers who were in original casts of Company B for different companies. Classical ballet has taught audiences to see different dancers in basically the same choreography to the same music. So it is the individual artistry of the dancer that both "tells" the story and shows you who they are. Well crafted choreography is the skeleton on which dancers get to build rapport with the other cast members on stage and, equally as important, with the audience. With Taylor's dances, there is an astonishing economy of steps that often looks familiar, yet is a vernacular unique to the language of the specific dance, and executing sequences are most often tied rhythmically to the phrasing of the music. Once the "steps" are learned, the dancer's "expression" needs to be both believable, and understood. I don't mean that there has to be a literal meaning for every step or dance, but movement in dance is a language that "speaks" in non-verbal ways. So I often ask dancers to "make me believe" that what they are doing is the only way they know how to express themselves in the dance, using the steps that they have been given. 

With the dancers of Diablo Ballet, January 2026.

Today there are generations of dancers who have learned and performed Company B. Some of the original cast members from Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and other companies have moved on from their performing careers into teaching, coaching and directing companies themselves. They in turn are looking to share their experience of performing Company B, with their own company dancers, students and audiences. I take this to be evidence of the work's success on many levels. Hopefully, the reality of seeing the work come to life many years later, will be as impactful as whatever happened to them as dancers that has kept the dance memorable and present in their minds. 

Diablo Ballet dancers: Lizzie, Diego, Ali in various roles from Company B. Photos: Tue Nam Ton

In 1993, Taylor formed a second company, Taylor 2, which was comprised of only six dancers. The purpose of this smaller company (Paul Taylor Dance Company is sixteen dancers) was so that it might serve to perform Taylor's dances in the kinds of venues and touring gigs Taylor did himself when starting out. Taylor 2 would be cheaper, easier to travel, provide residencies, and of course perform works from Taylor's repertoire. However, by the early nineties, Taylor's most popular dances were created for casts larger than six dancers. Company B was originally created for thirteen dancers. So Taylor decided to adapt some of his most in-demand dances for the six dancers of Taylor 2, including Company B. Of the productions being licensed this year, Diablo Ballet in Walnut Creek is the only company that needed to do the six-dancer version, on account of the size of their company. It has been wonderful to get both positive and measured feedback from many people intimately familiar with the dance. For my part, I hope the dancers I got to work with are incredibly proud of what they accomplished. They all made their mark on the legacy of the dance, and did amazingly well. I expected nothing less. 

Diablo Ballet takes a bow as the six-member cast of Company B.
(Alina, Marco, Lizzie, Eli, Ali, Diego)

(Marco, Nicole, Olivia, Eli, Amanda, Diego)

Job - Stager/Régisseur/Rehearsal Director/Répétiteur/Einstudierung

 Finding the right title for a job is an oft contested issue in every institution. Yet it is the institutional and individual histories that define the responsibilities of each position. While English has many words that have been adopted from other languages, like French and German, one of my responsibilities in writing up license agreements for Paul Taylor's choreographic works, is to give a title to the job of staging/reconstructing/rehearsing/overseeing a dance for an institution that wants to perform one of Taylor's dances. 

Teaching class for Diablo Ballet in January 2026

Mr. Taylor was extremely proud of his American-ness and believed that written language was as particular as the details in his dances. So he preferred that an English word be used to describe the job of remounting one of his choreographic works on another company or school. Within the Taylor Company the care of Taylor's works, and all other repertoire to be performed, falls to the Artistic Director and the Rehearsal Director. For people setting the work on outside organizations I settled on using Stager, even though the only dictionary definition I could find was for someone who decorates and furnishes a physical environment to enhance its appeal (e.g. the person who sets up your house to appeal to buyers for an open-house showing).

Within the North American concert-dance industry, rehearsal director is the general fallback term used, whether it is an in-house or freelance individual that is caring for the choreography that dancers need to learn, rehearse, and perform. In ballet companies you will often find rehearsal directors being referred to as répétiteurs or régisseurs. The latter is often a person with more experience whose responsibilities go beyond just making sure that choreography is performed to the best technical standards. Régisseurs might have more responsibility than répétiteurs to the intent, context, and stage production (lighting, sets, costumes) of particular dances. But each institution gets to define the titles and the responsibilities of its staffing.

Stagers of Paul Taylor dances must have a very deep and close knowledge of all aspects of the individual works for which they are charged with remounting on a company or school. More than just the choreography, stagers will be responsible for approving casting, costumes, lighting, stage appearance, cues, music, et cetera. As such, institutions have the privilege of working with original cast members who were in the studios as Taylor created the work to be performed, or alumni dancers who have had the chance to perform the dance many times over. Taylor's audience and critical favorites have been kept in rotation in varying cycles, but if you danced with the company for more than ten years, you might well have danced in works from every decade of the company's existence since the 1950's.

In my parallel blog Richard's 2025 Fulbright to New Zealand you can read more about my own perspectives of what it takes to actually stage a Taylor dance. As the licensing director for all of Taylor's dances, I have been building histories and supporting materials for other stagers that mirror the kinds of information I have found to be invaluable when leading a staging project of my own. This might include interviews with original cast members, as well as documentation of what changes/adaptations Mr. Taylor may have made with subsequent revivals of the work for the Taylor Company itself. Additionally, Taylor has the largest number of Labanotated scores for individual dances, second only to George Balanchine.

"Company B", to songs of The Andrews Sisters, is one of Taylor's most popular dances to be licensed and performed by ballet companies around the world, since its premiere by Houston Ballet in 1991. Following the first decade or so of perennial performances, it has never been out of the annual repertory of the Taylor Company for more than a couple of years. In the first few months of 2026, "Company B" is being performed around the USA by four different ballet companies, and I have had the good fortune that the Taylor Foundation approved me to set the work alongside my peers. I had to give up a good portion of my field work to direct the licensing division of the Taylor Foundation. And applying my staging skills helps to move forward how I create documentation for, and application of, legacy works of dance for current and future generations of dancers and audiences.

True legacy dances are not just artifacts or intellectual exercises for dancers and audiences. Dance relies on the daily and seasonal practices of both technical and artistic craft for the performers. Great dances challenge dancers to meet technical demands, as well as to hone their artistic craft of embodying a role with their own unique presence. Such dances also offer audiences more than just entertainment and chances to see their favorite dancers on stage; they can transcend the mechanics of notes, steps, designs, and touch on emotions in ways unique to dance as an Art. While "Company B" may evoke the 1940's war time era, its rendering of human emotions range from aspiration, to optimism, to denial, to acceptance, and many human traits. It touches audiences for making music and emotions visible. Learning and seeing such works of Art sets a benchmark in life for performing and seeing other dances that help us to grow as people and as a culture.

Here's a chance to see clips of the stagers as they danced "Company B" over the years. We all bring such a wealth of experience as professional dancers and teachers to our work in passing on Taylor's works to new dancers and new audiences. I am also gratified by the fact that the directors who chose "Company B" for their companies to perform, have all had very different memorable experiences with the work, whether from dancing in it during their careers, or witnessing and aspiring to dance it in their younger years.

I was in Walnut Creek, California in early January to set "Company B" on the dancers of Diablo Ballet. 

Dancing to "Pennsylvania Polka" with Annmaria Mazzini, circa 2000.

Patrick Corbin was also working in January with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

"Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!" Patrick Corbin with company women, circa 2000.

Connie Dinapoli is starting work in February with Texas Ballet Theater in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. 

Constance Dinapoli with David Grenke in "There'll Never Be Another You", circa 1992.

 Amy Young-Klenendorst will also be working in February with Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Amy Young with Sean Mahoney in "There'll Never Be Another You", circa 2013.

Throughout his life, Paul Taylor, had received commissions to create dances for companies other than his own. However, after a few disastrous projects, the last of which he and the company in question aborted, Taylor decided to only create new works with his own dancers. We were hand picked by Taylor to learn how to dance for him, and to take direction from him. Once the dance had been created in the studio, the designers (lighting, sets, costumes) would come in to make their contributions. Then the work would be transferred to the commissioning company by a designated stager, who was typically a current dancer or alumni of the company, to mount the work on the outside company. Taylor would attend final rehearsals and get it onto the stage for the world premiere by the commissioning company. Only then would his own company make their premiere of the work. "Company B" was one such commission.

Reflection anchors future possibilities...

In 2025, I started this writing this blog. It was originally intended to offer some perspective on how my ballet training aligned with many different forms of dance, and why a reader might be curious to come and take an adult beginner ballet class from me at the newly established Taylor Center for Dance Education in the heart of New York City. However, writing a blog in 2025 feels decidedly different than my previous online writing endeavors. I share news of each new post on social media, and there is little direct feedback on my posts. So the posts have evolved to offer my perspectives on how I see the dance world today, and where I think my place in it might land.

I'm pictured on this poster for the 1997 documentary about Paul Taylor,
with Patrick Corbin, Fancie Huber, and Thomas Patrick. Photo: Howard Schatz.

In 1993, I joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company as a dancer when I already had fifteen years as a professional dancer under my belt. My early dance training was in classical ballet, afro-Caribbean dance forms, and a hybrid Graham-Horton based modern. Prior to dancing for Paul Taylor, I had worked with ballet and contemporary dance companies, as well as independent performance projects, in the USA and internationally. And, in retrospect, I am deeply appreciative of my peripatetic early career. I got to work and meet with some of my generation's greatest choreographers, teachers, and regisseurs. Those individuals, no matter how brief, have left indelible influences on my own careers in dance as a performer, teacher and regisseur. My choreographic work seems hardly worth mentioning, but I have made enough attempts to appreciate the genius of those choreographers whose work I have both admired from the audience and had the privilege of dancing.

Paul Taylor died in 2018 at the age of eighty-eight, and this month in 2025, Hans van Manen died at the age of ninety-three. For me, these were two of the most influential choreographers that came out of the twentieth century, with whom I feel a very profound connection for completely different reasons. I spent fifteen years as a dancer in the studio with Paul Taylor, and I first saw him perform in 1969. I had never met Hans van Manen until 2016 when I was staging a Taylor dance on a program where van Manen was rehearsing his Grosse Fugue for Ballett am Rhein. I had read and seen photos of van Manen's work as a child and first saw his work performed on stage around 1979. Most striking to me was how easily I saw each performer as individual dancers in both choreographer's dances. And in the briefest of conversations I had with van Manen, he related a fond memory of meeting Paul Taylor at the Spoleto Festival in Italy during the early 1960's. When I shared the story with Taylor, he did remember meeting van Manen in Italy. They had a mutual respect for each others work, and believed in seeing the individual dancers in front of them, as they created or rehearsed their work. 

A documentary originally released in 2020 about Hans van Manen is available to stream online.

As I watched the most recent documentary on Hans van Manen, I was struck by how familiar his manner and intent during rehearsals on camera felt to me, from my memories of working with Taylor. In addition, it was such a pleasure to see a number of dancers with whom I had been working with on Taylor dances at Ballett am Rhein and Wiener Staatsballett rehearsing and performing van Manen's work in the film! I continue to be honored to have been filmed dancing Taylor's works for the 1997 documentary on Taylor, and I can only imagine how this current generation of dancers that worked with van Manen might treasure seeing themselves on screen with the master.

Hans van Manen in rehearsal with Doris Becker, Vincent Hoffman, Alexandre Simões, Sonia Dvořák.

Dancers are the legacy of choreographers. And those of us entrusted with bringing the works of choreographers no longer able to be here in person attempt to exemplify the detail, rigor and original intent behind the steps. In "Just Dance The Steps" van Manen is recorded as quoting George Balanchine which goes on to say that in doing the steps a dancer will find the meaning in the choreography. 

In rehearsal for Prime Numbers with Paul Taylor and cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach.

When Taylor would watch us dance, he would challenge himself, and us, to illustrate his intent by who we were as dancers and individuals. Yet he would rarely verbalize his thoughts or motives behind the steps. And in performance, there was often magic in feeling how your individual movement and intent were aligned to music, costumes, lights and scenic design. For me, staging a Taylor dance is about bringing out the best in each dancer and their relationship to the rest of the cast and the work as a whole. How I get there, is not only based on my experience of the work as a performer or understudy, but in as much information as I can gather about changes and adaptations that Taylor made as he revived work during his lifetime. I have been trying to document the evolution of each Taylor dance under my purview as licensing director for Paul Taylor's choreographic body of work, and make it available to the other regisseurs who stage Taylor's dances. Some of these exceptional professionals danced for Taylor long before me, a couple have tenures after my time. There is much to be learned about Paul Taylor from dances created and revived both before and after our respective eras in the company as dancers. 

In most aspects of our lives, we understand the value of learning from what has been established. Within the Arts, we learn the rules of grammar of our languages that have evolved through decades and centuries. Then we apply them to reading and acting and writing to communicate our ideas. Visual artists learn to draw, paint, sculpt and more, and their work is measured against the evidence left behind that helped to determine composition, balance, perspective, and aesthetic points of view. We learn music that is passed down aurally and for most musicians, they will learn to read what often becomes a standard form of notation, dependent on where you might be in the world. Unlike musicians, a relatively small percentage of dancers have ever learned any of the various forms of movement notation that exists, and so the process of learning and maintaining technical and artistic fluency still lies mostly on the human interaction of working and learning from each other in a studio or other such environment. 

What still remains common to speaking, visual and theatrical production arts, singing, and dancing is that they all require practise to become fluent in our delivery beyond just the words, the designs, the notes, the steps. Yet dance remains one of the most reliant on a human interactive tradition, much like environments that rely on oral or musical traditions that do not have physical documents to leave behind for future generations. 

With the lessons learned from masters of their Art such as Taylor, van Manen, and so many more, I feel as though there is a deep responsibility for us to play our parts in their legacy. A legacy upon which today's and the future's generations of artists can learn from what we know to be timeless and ever-meaningful contributions to our human need for expression, understanding, and emotional trancendence.

May all the amazing memories of your life be pillars of serenity in the coming years.

12 or 24 different dances... preparation and good habits are key!

I missed out on teaching my Adult Beginner Ballet class yesterday, and I was thrilled that my substitute was Beth Goheen. Beth is a teacher whom I first encountered while I was still a performing dancer, and I loved how her classes were always attentive to the most basic details of dance and movement.

By the time I retired from performing with Paul Taylor Dance Company, our annual New York performance seasons at City Center Theater, could cover as many as 24 different dances spread in a different combination of three or four dances for every show! And in my day, they were all dances choreographed by Taylor himself. 

Grid of Taylor dances in 2025 Lincoln Center season of PTDC, November 4-23.

Today, Taylor's dances still make up the majority of dances being performed by the company with exciting world premieres by resident and guest choreographers. 

As a ballet and modern dancer working for concert repertory companies, I was unsure of how varied the scope of Taylor's repertoire would be when I joined his company. I was not disappointed with the challenges of Taylor's many different choreographic works, all of which were created to be different from what he had done before. Dancing the range of works created as far back as 1956, through my retirement in 2008, provided a profound breadth of technical and artistic challenges that filled my fifteen years as a dancer for Paul Taylor.

Knowing how much I enjoyed being able to perform such a variety of dances upon demand was cultivated through great habits. I was privileged to have had great training to execute the most basic of physical actions as instinctive habits. These habits are the focus of my classes for the adult dancers who have found their way to join me on Tuesday evenings!

2025 screen capture from video of teaching Adult Beginner Ballet in October.

My previously mentioned experiment of videoing me teaching class has been started, and I have been able to post the videos on a YouTube channel that I share with the students in class. These are not meant as polished public clips, but more as review aids for dancers in class.

A fascinating boon for me was seeing how my exercises progressed through class in ways I had not necessarily anticipated. Back when I was still a teenager, one of my teachers took the time to explain how to build a class based on just one movement sequence (enchainment) broken down into its parts from pliés, to transference of weight, to center drills, to an adagio version, a petit allegro version, and ultimately a grand allegro version. This approach has anchored much of my teaching technique classes both in ballet and modern.

The concept of deconstructing, and building variations on the same movement phrase is also a common chreographic device, used to great effect by Taylor. Prime Numbers was created back in 1996, and two solos were built at the same time as a single sequence. Then my counterpart got to perform it to a slow adagio tune to open the dance, while I performed it much later as a quick allegro. 

1996 - Prime Numbers. Photo: Lois Greenfield

Articulation... is a good thing, especially in dance.

So... the Fall (autumn) season of dance in NYC has begun, and live audiences have an abundance of choices to make. If you have ever watched a live performance and wondered how it is possible that someone like you might be doing those amazing moves, those performers started training many years earlier. Yet you can start learning those basics in Adult Beginner dance classes, especially here in NYC! 

I love this recently published article about starting to learn ballet as an older person. Ballet at 70 ...

Every dancer eventually learns that there are infinite ways of using their feet, beyond just standing, walking and running. This is particularly true when avoiding trips, falls, sprains, and more serious injuries. Mostly, our feet are our connection to the ground, and paying attention to articulately using them builds good habits for complex choreography. 

1981 or so, a shot of my feet in rehearsals...

Indulge me for a minute when I speak about learning diction as a part of my early education under a British school system. Students started out by learning to enunciate our pronounciation of words (no matter our accent, I have a decidedly West Indian island lilt to my speech) and how words could be broken down into syllables. Ironically, I still have trouble determining how many syllables are attributed to different words, because of how my native accent might pronounce certain words. Take away from my digression, that I perceive physical articulation as akin to vocal enunciation.

Ballet is a great way to learn how to use our feet and build not only strength, but also understanding how they help us to balance and move. 

2025 candid shot of me rocking as I speak. Courtesy of my cousin, JoAnne.

As a dance teacher, I am often looking at how dancers use their feet in ads and now all over social media. 

Tiler Peck once guested with Paul Taylor Dance Company, and she is featured this season at our former home theater, City Center, while PTDC now shares her home theater at Lincoln Center! This is one of her Instagram promo reels.

Professional performers are expected to be the best of the best, and I am going to be blatantly biased as I include the preview for Paul Taylor Dance Company in their upcoming NYC season at Lincoln Center. I only ever performed with the company at City Center, but our new studios where I am teaching now lives easily within reach of both theaters. 

PTDC promo reel on Instagram.

The Taylor Center for Dance Education is filling with a huge range of dance and fitness offerings with exceptional teachers! Please come check us out on the

9th Floor, 307 W 38th Street, NYC, NY 10018, and you can sign up through 

our website Taylor Center for Dance Education