Taylor and her ensemble have been a force in LA Dance for three decades... - Cultural Daily

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

PAT TAYLOR Pat Taylor is a jazz dance educator, choreography and independent scholar, and founding artistic director /choreographer of JazzAntiqua. She was raised in a household where jazz served as the musical backdrop to daily life. Yet it is while she was teaching, performing and choreographing throughout Europe for seven years, witnessing the respect afforded our jazz tradition around the world, that she truly tapped into her passion for exploring the language of Jazz through movement. She is the recipient of a Brody Arts Fund Choreography Fellowship, and grant awards from Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Black Art Futures Fund, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Center for Cultural Innovation. A frequent artist-in-residence, Pat has created work for Southern Utah University, Meadows School of the Arts/Southern Methodist University, Peabody Conservatory/Johns Hopkins University, University of Alabama, Salve Regina University, University of Idaho, Sacramento State, Loyola Marymount University and other distinguished institutions. Her work has been presented at: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hollywood Bowl (Playboy Jazz Festivals), Glashuset (Sweden), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, City Center (NY), CIAEI Theatre (Brazil), California African American Museum, The Jazz Bakery, Southern Theater (MN) and more Committed to community arts and jazz arts education, preservation and creation, Pat’s engagement initiatives include: the Community Salon – an intergenerational gathering for conversation and exchange of ideas; The Movement in the Music™ daylong celebration of jazz dance; LEGACY Jazz Project – a free dance training program for teens; and The Art of Jazz lecture-demonstration and presentation series. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts (Jazz Aesthetics Emphasis) from Goddard College and is a Lecturer in Jazz Dance at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. She is honored to be a contributing chapter author for Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century (University Press of Florida, 2022).