An Appalachian Summer Presents Paul Taylor Dance Company July 14

Lunch & Learn at Turchin Center July 15

The internationally-acclaimed Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to An Appalachian Summer Festival on Tuesday, July 14, at 8:00 p.m. at Farthing Auditorium.

An Appalachian Summer Festival welcomes the return of festival favorite Paul Taylor Dance Company to the stage of Farthing Auditorium at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14. This performance is on the SkyBest Mainstage Series.

Established in 1954, the Paul Taylor Dance Company has long been one of the world’s most highly respected dance troupes. The company 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. The company’s 1999 engagement in Chile was named the Best International Dance Event of the Year by the country’s Art Critic’s Circle. In summer 2001, the company toured the People’s Republic of China and performed in six cities, four of which had never seen American modern dance. Beginning with its first television appearance for the Dance in America series in 1978, the company has appeared on PBS in nine different programs.

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. New York, San Francisco and Durham host annual engagements. Paul Taylor is a favorite of An Appalachian Summer Festival audiences, which greeted the company with wild enthusiasm in 1994, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2005.

Few artists of our time have had the profound impact on their art form that Paul Taylor has had on dance in the last six decades. People in cities and towns throughout the world have seen and enjoyed live modern dance performances due largely to the far-reaching tours Taylor pioneered as a virtuoso dancer in the 1950s. Fifty-four years after he made his first dance, he has a collection of 128 works performed by his own celebrated company (now numbering 16 dancers) and the six-member Taylor 2, as well as renowned ballet and modern dance companies here and abroad. As the subject of the widely seen documentary, Dancemaker, and author of a critically acclaimed autobiography, Private Domain, he has shed light on the mystery of the creative process. Taylor remains among the most sought-after choreographers working today, commissioned by leading companies, theaters and presenting organizations the world over.  

While on campus, John Tomlinson, general manager for Paul Taylor Dance Company, will share behind-the-scenes insight into contemporary dance and the inner workings of a world-renowned, internationally lauded dance company in a Lunch & Learn lecture titled “Dancing Around the Subject”on Wednesday, July 15, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public. Bring a brown bag lunch; bottled water is provided.

Tickets to the Paul Taylor Dance Company concert are $25 for adults, $15 for ASU students, $16 for students ages 6 to 18 and $10 for kids 12 and under. The festival offers two flexible ticket passes: the “Pick 5” offers a 15 percent discount off of ticket purchases in multiples of five; the “Festival Pass” offers a 25 percent discount and priority seating for those who purchase a ticket to each performance.

For more information, call 828-262-4046 or click to www.appsummer.org.

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