Paul Taylor's dancers carry knowledge in their bodies!

 Learning to dance can seem like a simple statement. Then once you start the journey, you realize that you have to narrow down your definition of DANCE, for no other reason than to not be overwhelmed with all the things we might consider to be dance. Identifying the realm(s) of dance you might love doing, does mean having the courage to simply drop in and take a class as a first step!

Paul Taylor was of a generation of Modern Dance choreographers who started out imagining that rules and definitions exist to be challenged! Learning to perform Taylor's choreography is a practice that I had the privilege of doing under his guidance for fifteen years. And, in my day, that was the average number of years dancers stayed with Taylor's company.

It took me at least seven years to start being secure in my ballet technique during my early career, and by the time I thought I was mastering my dancing, my body had aged and changed drastically from its earlier capacities. I joined Taylor fifteen years into my career and doubled my performing life. Needless to say, I could never have imagined what my body and my dancing was going to be at forty-six, when I stepped away from performing.

2008 in one of the last roles created for me by Paul Taylor in his
"De Sueños"

Teach what you know, and learn what you don't know. With age, I have learned that life experience has taught me that I know more than I think, and learning is a constant process. Taylor passed away ten years after I stopped dancing for him, and he created eighteen more dances in that time. Today, I am still working with and investigating more than one hundred and forty documented works of Paul Taylor. Many Taylor dancers have the joy of exploring well over fifty different Taylor dances if they remain for an average tenure with the company of ten to fifteen years. So when I get to teach in the style of Taylor, or stage one of his works, or deepen the research for other stagers of his works, I see how Taylor's style and choreography shapes the access to movement and dramatic range of each dancer. And dancers can apply this in turn to all of their other performances.

I have a profound background as a classical ballet dancer, alongside a childhood education in Afro-Caribbean forms. Yet my legacy in dance is currently bound to an American Modern Dance tradition that I learned little about as a student. Taylor's company culture under his leadership, and Taylor's choreography taught me much that I needed to learn, and in turn a little more that I now know.

Rowan Parker is one such dancer that I have had the pleasure of sharing what I have learned from my life in dance with Paul Taylor. 

2024 - Yamit Salazar & Rowan Parker in Paul Taylor's "Duet". Photo: Fabrice Herrault

" I had the huge pleasure of being taught by, and working with Richard both in the UK and in NYC. I felt inspired by his wisdom and passion from the beginning. He came with such a wealth of knowledge that i wanted to absorb as much from him as I could in each class or rehearsals that we had. He has so much to pass on from his time in the dance world, and he does just that. he leads with enthusiasm and care to achieve the best results from whoever he iw working with. There are certain teachers or mentors over a dancer's life that leave a long lasting impression, and to me Richard is one of those figures." - Rowan Parker

2024 - rehearsing with Rowan & Yamit in Ashington, England. Photo: Eliot Smith

Whether you are interested in learning ballet or modern, the Taylor School in NYC has expanded its footprint to managing eight studios in Manhattan. I am so happy to be able to teach regularly each week, alongside brilliant teachers from both the ballet and the modern world. I hope you will come check it out!