Paul Taylor Dance Company Gives Private Performance

The Paul Taylor Dance Company presented works by master choreographer and Pennsylvania native Paul Taylor April 21 in the Simon Theatre. The performance was a required event for all Mercersburg students and faculty.
    
“We are proud to have proposed this tour as part of the national American Masterpieces initiative and especially proud that Pennsylvania communities will get to celebrate the remarkable genius of a native son,” said Philip Horn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, who, along with the National Endowment for the Arts, are sponsoring the dance company’s 2008 Pennsylvania State Tour. “A tour of this quality and breadth of content is very rare for any dance company in this day and age,” Horn says.
    
Taylor was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up near Washington, D.C. After graduating from Syracuse University, he studied dance at Julliard in New York City and quickly became a member of the illustrious Martha Graham and George Balanchine dance companies. In 1954, he founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
    
Taylor retired as a performer in 1975, but continues to work as a choreographer. Now, at age 76, he is the artistic director of his company and continues to create two new works a year.
    
President Clinton awarded Taylor the National Medal of Arts in 1993. In January 2000, he was presented with France’s highest cultural award, the Legion d’honneur.

Photo: Renee Hicks