What Reviewers Say
"Paul Taylor is without question the greatest living American choreographer. Taylor's emphasis on emotion within actual movement, the rhythmic vitality of his accents, his all-American youthfulness and optimism, all have set standards for American dance." San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
“Beloved Renegade is the best new choreography I saw in 2008. Deeply moving… a work of philosophic as well as dramatic power. Mr. Taylor, in a few works (Sunset, above all) ranks among the great war poets…. Even as the poet nears his end, his sense of glory does not fail; his final dance to his muse is the most marvelous expression of rapture, climaxing in slow falls of immense beauty…. Certainly Beloved Renegade is one of the great achievements of Mr. Taylor’s long career and one of the most eloquently textured feats of his singular imagination.” New York Times
Renegade? Yes. Beloved? Yes. Perfect? Yes.
“As though it weren't a gift enough to have the Paul Taylor Dance Company back after a year's hiatus, this latest San Francisco Performances engagement brought us a fresh Taylor masterpiece. If you were [there], you are now basking in the heaven on earth of Beloved Renegade. If [not,] I am sorry to report you have missed one of the most beautiful dances of Taylor's 50-plus-year career.” San Francisco Chronicle
"A sure slice of heaven." Time Out New York
New Life Can Arise In Old Happy Endings
"Another season by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, in March at City Center, with more daredevil performing by dancers with strong individual presences and more lyrical, magisterial and slyly comical choreography by Mr. Taylor. Suddenly his airy, sweet-natured new Spring Rounds made me glad he is such an unassuming humanist. And the simple wordless majesty of the dance and dancers in his 1988 Brandenburgs reminded me of my childhood wonder at the enveloping power of the art." Jennifer Dunning, New York Times
"Paul Taylor Dance Company is perhaps the most beloved and respected modern dance company in the world, famous for Mr. Taylor's wit, its sunny expansiveness, its all-American optimism and its occasional forays into darkness and gloom." Dallas Morning News
"Paul Taylor's dancers are so terrific, you don't know who's luckier -- they to have him or him to have them." The World of Dance, WQXR
“America’s most magnificent dancing machine performing America’s most deeply communicative and wildly theatrical modern dance." San Francisco Examiner
"In a post 9/11 world, many artists are trying to come to terms with the human tragedy and the subsequent changes that have occurred in our Western world. Capturing the Zeitgeist of the early 21st Century is a challenging task. After nearly half a century of choreographing, Paul Taylor rises to the challenge with such ease, it is awe inspiring. He has led his company into the millennium, presenting world class dance that distinctly touches the pulse of time.... Taylor's work not only communicates on an intellectual level, it touches the human soul. In a world that is struggling to find its feet, the emotional undercurrent of fear mixed with optimism unites most of the international community. Connecting with this emotion, Taylor is speaking the language of our time." LondonDance.com
"There's no textbook for how to make a dance. But there is, thank God, Paul Taylor, whose body of work is a blueprint that would not steer any fledgling dance maker wrong. The veteran American choreographer's Company B was the marquee item on Ballet British Columbia's latest mixed bill, and before the dancers are a few steps into the opening "Bei Mir Bist du Schon" number, you're aware that you are in knowing hands. A suite of dances set to 1940s tunes by the Andrews Sisters, Company B is no ordinary crowd pleaser. It presents the social dances of the period, reflected through the lens of one of modern dance's enduring creators (Taylor's company celebrated its 50th New York season last year), but its dark subtext pulses at the edges from the outset. The counterpoint between these shining youths and a world teetering at the edge of catastrophe is the whole point. The work's simplicity is really what catches at you: how can what is so straightforward be so powerful?" Vancouver Sun
"One of the most exciting, innovative, and delightful dance companies in the entire world." New York Times
"The American spirit soars whenever Taylor's dancers dance." San Francisco Chronicle
"One of the most intelligent, stylish and physically magnificent dance troupes we have." New York Magazine
"Paul Taylor Dance Company dazzles the eye and lightens the heart." The Detroit News
"The most inventive and versatile choreographer alive today... One of the few indisputably great dance companies in the world." New York Post
"The Paul Taylor Dance Company, led by a wizard, shows monumental taste in everything it does." Montreal Gazette
"Among the pleasures of modern dance, it remains particularly gratifying to fall, night after night, under Mr. Taylor's spell." New York Sun
"Paul Taylor is the reigning master of modern dance." Time Magazine
"Taylor, one of the most astute social observers in any art form, has a knack for taking the dominant dance form of an era and... twisting it into a commentary on the people and their lives." Washington Post
"The best choreographer in the world." Daily News
"The greatest choreographer in the world." Vanity Fair
"Paul Taylor is an icon and will live forever as one of the greatest dance figures of the ages." Berkshire Eagle