UT Dallas Dance Students

UTDance Ensemble will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday before the Paul Taylor Dance Company takes the stage at 8 p.m.

This weekend, the UT Dallas community will have the opportunity to watch one of the world’s most sought-after dance troupes, the Paul Taylor Dance Company. 

Paul Taylor, who has been described as “the greatest choreographer alive” by The New York Times, has designed nearly 140 original dance pieces that are performed by the 16-member company and the chamber-sized group Taylor 2.

Presented in partnership with UT Dallas’ School of Arts and Humanities, the Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson.

UT Dallas students have been working with the Taylor 2 company to perform a Taylor-inspired work. The UTDance Ensemble will showcase its piece at 6 p.m., before the Paul Taylor Dance Company takes the stage.

“Learning from Taylor 2 has been an exceptional experience for our students. They’ve been working closely with some of the top artists in the field of dance and have learned a section from Esplanade, a modern dance master work by Paul Taylor,” said Michele Hanlon, assistant dean of the School of Arts and Humanities. “It has been an intense experience. They have been working hard, and they are doing great work. The UTDance Ensemble is an outstanding group of young performers. I am looking forward to seeing the days and hours of hard work come together this Saturday.”

Hanlon, who teaches both dance performance and dance composition, is directing the UTDance Ensemble this semester. Senior lecturer Monica Saba, who teaches modern dance and ballet, organized the residency that brought the Paul Taylor troupes to North Texas.

“Within five days, UT Dallas dance students have spent 25 hours in rehearsal with Paul Taylor 2 director Ruth Andrien and the dancers of the company. Our dancers are experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Saba said. “This Saturday they will not only walk away having performed at the Eisemann Center alongside seasoned professional dancers, but they will have gained a wealth of knowledge and growth as artists that would have taken years to achieve.”

Ticket prices for the dance performance vary, but the UT Dallas student portion of the evening is free to attend. For ticket information, visit eisemanncenter.com