CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON PRESENTS
PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY
NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 2 AT THE SHUBERT THEATRE

(BOSTON)—Celebrity Series of Boston, Martha H. Jones, President and Executive Director, presents the

Paul Taylor Dance Company on Friday, November 30 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 1 at 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday, December 2 at 3:00 p.m. at The Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont Street, Boston. The all-Taylor program includes the Boston premieres of Troilus and Cressida (reduced) and Lines of Loss, along with two Taylor classics—Aureole and Esplanade.

The engagement is sponsored by Charlesbank Capital Partners. The Little Family Foundation and Emerson College are the sponsors of the Celebrity Series’ 2007-2008 Dance Series; media partner WGBH 89.7.

This season’s engagement marks the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s thirteenth Celebrity Series of Boston appearance since its debut in 1970. The Celebrity Series presented the company’s last appearance in Boston in May 2005.

On May 30, 1954, Paul Taylor, together with five other dancers, gave the first public performance of his choreography and founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company. That modest engagement in Manhattan marked the beginning of a half-century of creativity during which Mr. Taylor established himself as one of America’s most prolific choreographers, with more than 120 dances to his credit today. The Paul Taylor Dance Company has performed these works in more than 500 cities in 62 countries around the world, bringing Mr. Taylor’s repertoire to theaters and venues of every size and description, in cultural capitals, on college campuses, and in rural communities—many times to places where modern dance has never before been seen. Mr. Taylor’s choreography, once deemed experimental, avant-garde and even painful to sit through, has become the gold standard of modern dance, and has bridged the once-distant camps of ballet and modern dance with its presence in the repertoires of several internationally acclaimed ballet companies. The Paul Taylor Company celebrated its 50 th anniversary during the 2004-2005 season with a tour of all 50 states that featured a Golden Quartet of new dances and underscored the company’s role as one of America’s first touring modern dance companies.

Paul Taylor grew up near Washington, D.C. He was a swimmer and a student of art at Syracuse University in the late 1940s until he discovered dance, and began studying at The Juilliard School. By 1954 he had assembled a small company of dancers in New York City. While continuing to choreograph dances on the newly formed troupe, Mr. Taylor joined the Martha Graham Dance Company as a soloist in 1955 for the first of seven seasons, and performed as a guest artist with New York City Ballet in George Balanchine's Episodes in 1959 . After retiring as a performer in 1975, Mr. Taylor devoted himself fully to choreography. Celebrated for uncommon musicality, he has set dances to ragtime and reggae, tango and American popular song, telephone time announcements and loon calls; he has turned elevator music and novelty tunes into high art; and worked regularly with the music of Bach, Handel, and other Baroque composers. Beginning in 1968 when Mr. Taylor’s Aureole first entered the repertory of the Royal Danish Ballet, his works have been licensed for performance by more than 75 companies worldwide. At 76, Mr. Taylor is one of the world’s most sought-after choreographers and is regularly commissioned by leading companies, theaters, and presenting organizations around the world.

The 2007-2008 Dance Series
The Paul Taylor Dance Company’s engagement is the second in a series of six events that comprise the Celebrity Series of Boston’s 2007-2008 Dance Series. The series also includes: Seán Curran Company (October 26-28 at the Tsai Performance Center), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (February 7-10 at The Wang Theatre), Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal featuring Ohad Naharin’s Minus One (March 28-30 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre), Black Grace Dance Company (April 17 and 18 at the Tsai Performance Center), and Mark Morris Dance Group featuring Dido and Aneas (May 28-June 1 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre).

Program Information

PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY
Friday, November 30 at 7:30 PM;
Saturday, December 1 at 8:00 PM;
Sunday, December 2 at 3:00 PM

The Shubert Theatre
265 Tremont Street, Boston

All choreography by Paul Taylor

Aureole (1962)
Music: Georg Frideric Handel

Troilus and Cressida (reduced) (2006) – Boston Premiere
Music: Amilcare Ponchielli

Lines of Loss (2007) ) – Boston Premiere
Music: Guillaume de Machaut, Christopher Tye, Jack Body, John Cage, Arvo Pärt, and Alfred Schnittke

Esplanade (1975)
Music: J.S. Bach

Ticketing Information
Tickets, priced at $62, $52, and $42 , are available by calling Telecharge (800) 447-7400, online at www.telecharge.com, or at The Shubert Theatre box office, 265 Tremont Street, Boston.

About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston is New England's leading presenter of music, dance, and the performing arts from around the world. Founded in 1938, the Series incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1989. Each year, the Celebrity Series brings to Boston's major concert halls performances by instrumental and vocal soloists, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance companies, jazz and popular music performers, folk and ethnic performance groups, and other performing artists. The Celebrity Series' Arts, Education and Community program was initiated in 1984. The program reaches thousands of students annually in Boston area schools and communities. The program includes the award-winning AileyCamp Boston, a six-week summer dance program for Boston middle school students, and ACT 2, an after-school initiative for former participants of AileyCamp Boston. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series receives major annual support from two anonymous donors; The Little Family Foundation; The Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Bank of America; The Linde Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Talbots Charitable Foundation; Foley & Lardner LLP; Charlesbank Capital Partners; Comcast; Morgan Stanley; BDO Seidman; PTC; Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation; Steven and Joan Belkin Foundation; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; The Consolate General of Canada; The Collings Foundation; The Esther B. Kahn Charitable Foundation; The Red Sox Foundation; Massachusetts Cultural Council; National Endowment for the Arts; New England Foundation for the Arts; Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Foundation; The Harris A. Berman and Ruth E. Nemzoff Family Foundation; Amy and Joshua Boger; DeMoulas Foundation; Margaret Eagle and Eli Rapaport; Kathleen and Steven Haley; Cerise and Charles Jacobs; Paul L. King; Jann E. Leeming and Arthur D. Little; Paul F. and Barbara A. Levy; Frank and Eleanor Pao; Spring Sirkin and Arthur Frank; Dorothy and Stephen Weber; Nancy Richmond Winsten and Dr. Joseph Winsten; Charles O. Wood, III and Miriam M. Wood; Ellen and Arnold Zetcher.

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