The Geniuses of America...
Photo:
BETTIE DE JONG (Rehearsal Director) is one of the world's dance
pioneers. Almost perfect.
She was born in Sumatra, Indonesia, and moved to Holland in 1946, where she continued her early training in dance and mime. Her first professional engagement was with the Netherlands Pantomime Company. After coming to New York City to study at the Martha Graham School, she performed with the Graham Company, the Pearl Lang Company, John Butler and Lucas Hoving, and was seen on CBS-TV with Rudolf Nureyev in a duet choreographed by Paul Taylor. Ms. de Jong has been with the Taylor Company for over 35 years, having joined in 1962. Noted for her strong stage presence and long line, she was Taylor's favorite dancing partner and, as Rehearsal Director, has been his right arm for the past 27 years.
In January 2000 he was awarded France's highest honor, the Légion d'Honneur, for exceptional contributions to French culture. He is the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships and has received honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from California Institute of the Arts, Connecticut College, Duke University, Juilliard, Skidmore College, the State University of New York at Purchase, and Syracuse University. Awards for lifetime achievement include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship - often called the "genius award" - and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. Other awards include the New York State Governor's Arts Award and the New York City Mayor's Award of Honor for Art and Culture. In 1989 Mr. Taylor was elected one of ten honorary American members of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Since 1968, when Aureole first entered the repertory of the Royal Danish Ballet, Mr. Taylor's works have been licensed for performance by more than 75 companies worldwide. They include American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Rambert, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, English National Ballet, Guangdong Modern Dance Company of China, Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Teatro alla Scala of Milan. In 1993 Mr. Taylor formed Taylor 2, a company of six dancers who bring many of the choreographer's masterworks to smaller venues around the world. Taylor 2 also teaches the Taylor style in schools and workplaces and at community gatherings. Paul Taylor's autobiography, Private Domain, originally published by Alfred A. Knopf and re-released by the University of Pittsburgh Press, was nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as the most distinguished biography of 1987. Mr. Taylor and his Company are the subject of Dancemaker, Matthew Diamond's award-winning, Oscar-nominated film, hailed by Time as "perhaps the best dance documentary ever." (Official biography).
Photo: SUSAN McGUIRE, Director of Taylor 2 and the Taylor School, was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1977 to 1988, and served as rehearsal director in 1989. Ms. McGuire symbolizes the symbol of perfection and unsurpassed artistic creativity at many levels. She is absolutely superb!
She created roles in Taylor’s Dust, Airs, Roses and Last Look, among other works. Prior to joining the Taylor Company, Ms. McGuire danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1973 to 1976. She has been on the faculties of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, the Paul Taylor School, the summer programs at Jacob’s Pillow and Juilliard, and the American Dance Festival. In 1989 and 1990 she held the Sage Cowels Land Grant Chair in Dance at the University of Minnesota. Ms. McGuire was Artistic Head of London Contemporary Dance School from 1991 to 1998. She has revived or reconstructed Paul Taylor’s work for American Ballet Theatre, the Gulbenkian Ballet of Portugal, the Rambert Dance Company of England, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, as well as several universities. She has lectured on the training of the professional dancer at The The Healthier Dancer conference sponsored by Dance U.K., and on Paul Taylor’s work at the international conference Preservation Politics at the Roehampton Institute in London. Ms. McGuire was Director of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and a Rehearsal Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company from January through June, 2000. She was appointed to her current positions with the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation in August, 2000.
The
Paul Taylor Dance Company, now in its 49th year, is one of the world's most
exquisite and impressive ensembles. Few artists, choreographers and dancers
can rival the excellence and pure magic of Paul Taylor's Company, for this
magnificent ensemble redefined quality standards and the highest standards in
contemporary dance.
The Company has performed Mr. Taylor's works in over 60 countries and more than 450 cities. It has represented the United States at arts festivals in more than 40 countries and has toured extensively under the aegis of the U.S. Department of State. In June 1999 the Company launched a two-year Cultural Capitals of the World Tour, which took it to Santiago, Cologne, Auckland, Macau, Jakarta, Paris, Frankfurt, Kingston, Santo Domingo, Stockholm, Bergen, Lyon, London, Rome, Montreal, Beijing and Shanghai, among other cities. The engagement in Chile was named the Best International Dance Event of 1999 by the country's Art Critic's Circle. In the summer of 2001 the Company toured in The People's Republic of China and performed in six cities, four of which had never seen American modern dance before. In the spring of 2003 the Company mounted a four-week, seven-city tour of the United Kingdom. While continuing to garner international acclaim, the Paul Taylor Dance Company performs more than half of each touring season in cities throughout the United States. Boston and Durham host annual engagements during which audiences have the opportunity to see Mr. Taylor's newest works. The Company also presents annual two-week seasons at City Center in New York and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Beginning with its first television appearance for the Dance in America series in 1978, the Company has appeared on PBS in eight different programs, including the 1991 Emmy Award-winning Speaking in Tongues. More recently, the Company worked with WNET/New York to create a new Dance in America special, The Wrecker's Ball, which includes Company B, Funny Papers, and A Field of Grass. Broadcast nationally on PBS, The Wrecker's Ball was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1997. In 1999 the PBS American Masters series aired Dancemaker, the Academy Award nominated documentary about Paul Taylor and his Company. Continues next