‘Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company’ to Perform at MCCC in Blue Bell
Feb. 28, 2008, Blue Bell, Pa.— Montgomery County Community College will present a performance by the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company on Saturday, March 29 at 8 p.m. in the Science Center Theater, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. Tickets cost $22 for reserved seating, $18 for senior citizens and students and $10 for children under age 12 for the main stage performance. For information and tickets, call 215-641-6518 or visit www.mc3.edu online.
Paul Taylor established Taylor 2 in 1993 as a companion to the original Paul Taylor Dance Company to ensure that his works could be seen by audiences all over the world, unhindered by economic or technical limitations. Both companies feature the Taylor’s chorography, which, after 52 years and 124 dances, has become the gold standard of modern dance. His work is described as being cutting-edge and provocative, earning him the designation as “the naughty boy of dance” in the 1950s and 1960s.
Taylor has received every important honor bestowed to artists by the United States and France. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1993. In 1992 he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and he received an Emmy Award for “Speaking in Tongues,” produced by WNET/New York the previous year. In 1995 he received the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, and he was named one of 50 prominent Americans honored in recognition of their outstanding achievement by the Library of Congress's Office of Scholarly Programs. Taylor was elected to knighthood by the French government as Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1969 and has since been elevated to the ranks of Officier (1984) and Commandeur (1990). In January 2000 he was awarded France's highest honor, the Légion d'Honneur, for exceptional contributions to French culture.
Taylor 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 he was elected one of ten honorary American members of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
For more information on Paul Taylor and the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company, visit www.ptdc.org.
