Ballet & Paul Taylor

 I promise that I am not attempting to make this a daily ritual of posting. I AM trying to get the word out to anyone that might be interested in taking a ballet class aimed at helping you master the basics!

Paul Taylor took his first ballet class when he was already in college. It’s never too late to get started, or pick up a previously learned love of ballet. Here at the Taylor School you can also discover how Mr. Taylor’s late start might have helped him create such musical movement in his choreography.

Paul Taylor Dance Company in "Brandenburgs"
Lisa Viola, Richard Chen See, Amy Young, Parisa Khobdeh
photo: Lois Greenfield

Many of Taylor's dances take advantage of the technique and aesthetic lines most often learned in ballet classes and learning those basics is one way to imagine yourself dancing on stage with Taylor dancers or dancers from esteemed ballet companies like Sarasota Ballet!

Sarasota Ballet in "Brandenburgs"
Ricardo Graziano, Katelyn May, Danielle Brown, Ellen Overstreet
photo: Frank Atura

Class will be designed to Discover the joy of how dancers have used ballet to speak through movement, music and rhythm. Learn the movement vocabulary in small chunks of just a few movements at a time repeated in rhythm and simple musical phrases.

Ballet classes start with exercises “at the barre” where you will be guided through long established sequences to warm up your whole body while holding onto a stationary “barre” as you build physical articulation and prepare to balance and move around the room.

Moving to the center after the barre is where you will learn the essential ballet vocabulary to stand on one leg, maybe do a turn or two, transfer your weight in different ways, and use your body and arms to move in time with music.

The progression of each class will follow the understanding and abilities of the dancers in the room. We can learn to stand, and then walk, and then run, and then jump! And only when YOU are ready for that next step.

I look forward to helping you find your “inner dancer”!