DAVID TAYLOR DANCE THEATRE RECORDS

David Lee Taylor was born in Chester, England in 1948, the son of an American Naval Officer and an English mother. He moved to Long Island, New York soon after he was born. A graduate of Manhasset High School, Manhasset, New York (1965), he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Denver (1969). In 1969, Taylor traveled to London, England to study with a Gurdjieff group at the Gurdjieff Society to participate in the exercises, teaching methods, and sacred movement classes in preparation for learning the Gurdjieff movements. The movements are a repertoire of ancient and sacred dances and esoteric movements gathered at the end of the 19th century from closed communities, temples, and monasteries in the Near and Middle East and Asia by the esoteric philosopher, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866?-1949). Unfortunately, after a year's time, Taylor was unable to continue with his studies and was forced to return to the U.S. Nevertheless many of the movements and spiritual inspirations found in his subsequent works derived from this experience. Much later, when he discovered that local Gurdjieff groups had been established in the Metro-Denver area, Taylor learned some of the “obligatory” movements. Upon his return to Denver, Colorado in 1970, Taylor met the dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Richard Denny. Denny became a spiritual advisor to Taylor and it was through his encouragement that Taylor began to study ballet. Through Denny's company, Ballet Now, Taylor began to choreograph and present his first ballets. Taylor began his own dancing career with the Denver Opera Foundation performances at Cheesman Park (1969, 1970), and with Colorado Concert Ballet (1972-1974), known now as Colorado Ballet, and as a principal dancer with Ballet Now (1976-1979). During this period he was also involved as a composer and keyboardist with the classical rock group, Moore of Taylor-Jones, also known as Devasymphonique.

David Taylor’s first choreographic work Cathedral set to the music of Claude Debussy was premiered in 1976 by Richard Denny's Ballet Now company. Taylor continued to choreograph ballets such as La Valse des Rêves (1977) and Alexander Glazounov's, The Seasons (1978), for the students of his ballet schools in Georgetown and Black Hawk, Colorado. He subsequently founded his own dance company, David Taylor Dance Theatre (a.k.a. DTDT), in the fall of 1979 with the premiere performance at Battle Mountain High School, Vail, Colorado on February 23, 1980. As the company's Artistic Director from 1979-2006, Taylor provided much of the choreography for works performed by the company. These include the well known and nationally recognized productions of Romeo and Juliet Rocks! (2004), and Rainforest (1995). The company also began presenting the popular holiday ballet, Nutcracker in 1986. The revised version of the ballet produced in 1991, with sets and costumes by the artist George Peters, also received much acclaim. In Fall 2006, David Taylor stepped down as acting Artistic Director becoming Artistic Director Emeritus, a position he held until the end of the David Taylor Dance Theatre's 32nd season (2010-2011). On October 6, 2011, the company's board of directors and current Artistic Director, James Wallace, announced the merger of the David Taylor Dance Theatre with the DawsonDanceSF company based in San Francisco, California. The merger created a new dance company known as the Dawson/Wallace Dance Project.

During his tenure as Artistic Director, Taylor and the David Taylor Dance Theatre received three National Endowment for the Arts grant awards, the City and County of Denver’s first Individual Artist Fellowship award for dance, and the State of Colorado’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (1997). Taylor has been commissioned to create ballets for Opera Colorado, Colorado Symphony, Denver Chamber Orchestra, Up Close and Musical Ensemble, National Repertory Orchestra, and the Colorado Wind Ensemble. He also created works for the Dayton Ballet, Dayton, Ohio; the Lone Star Ballet in Amarillo, Texas; Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet; and the Canyon Concert Ballet in Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition, Taylor has served as a board member for the Mayor’s Commission on Cultural Affairs, as the vice president for the Colorado Dance Alliance, and as a peer panel member for the Colorado Council on the Arts.

On September 6, 2009 at the Brooks Center for Spirituality, Denver, Colorado, David Taylor presented the premiere preview performance of a new dance company called, Zikr Sacred Dance Ensemble. The company offers "...a spectrum of works that are based on transcendent dance rituals from many different ancient world cultures along with original and contemporary dance/theatre realizations." With the second season (2010-2011), the company's name was shortened to Zikr Dance Ensemble.

The following chronological list of works presented by the company, junior company and school of the David Taylor Dance Theatre (1980-2006) should not be considered complete, but is compiled from the best sources available. The majority of the works listed were choreographed by David Taylor. Works by other choreographers, such as Glen Tetley, Jim Clouser, James Moulton, Bruce Marks, etc., are also noted, as are the names of individuals responsible for staging ballets by deceased and/or living choreographers. Some earlier works created for David Taylor's ballet schools in Black Hawk and Georgetown, Colorado as well as those created for Richard Denny's Ballet Now company are also listed. Ballets created prior to the 1979-1980 inaugural season of the David Taylor Dance Theatre list the date the work was first performed by the company with the original year of creation in parenthesis next to the title.