Get to know teacher Mr David Taylor better!

Mr David teaches Ballet 7/CCB2 on Mondays at 4:30pm and Ballet 6 on Mondays at 6:00pm.

David Taylor has been professionally involved in the Colorado dance community for the past forty-eight years. During the course of a twelve-year dance career, he began choreographing in 1976, and since then has created well over 100 original works. In 1979, he founded the David Taylor Dance Theatre, which for thirty-two years was recognized as one of the Rocky Mountain region’s most acclaimed dance organizations, and Denver’s original contemporary ballet company. Mr. Taylor has received three National Endowment for the Arts grant awards along with the City and County of Denver’s first Individual Artist Fellowship award for dance, and in March of 1997, he and his company were proud recipients of the State of Colorado’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.  He has been commissioned to create ballets for Opera Colorado, the Colorado Symphony, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Museum of Outdoor Arts and the Up Close and Musical Ensemble, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Colorado Wind Ensemble, and for the Dayton Ballet in Ohio. He has also staged works for the Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet, the Lone Star Ballet of Amarillo, Texas, Western Wyoming Community College, Colorado Mesa University and the Canyon Concert Ballet and his original and innovative productions of “The Nutcracker” and “Rainforest” garnered national critical recognition and were booked extensively across the United States for twenty years.  Mr. Taylor has additionally served as a Board member for the Mayor’s Commission on Cultural Affairs, as the Vice President for the Colorado Dance Alliance, as a peer panel member for the Colorado Council on the Arts, and in 2008 received the Carson-Brierly Dance Library’s prestigious “Living Legends of Dance” Award.

Currently, Mr. Taylor serves as the Artistic Director and upper level ballet program faculty member for Denver Ballet Theatre where he teaches ballet technique, pas de deux, pointe, variations and dance history. His extensive background also includes a longtime involvement with metaphysical studies, sacred dance and ritual. In 2009 he founded the Zikr Dance Ensemble, a unique professional company that offers a spectrum of works that are based on transcendent dance rituals from many different ancient world cultures throughout history along with original and contemporary dance/theatre realizations. Zikr employs some of the finest ballet-trained dancers from numerous companies along the Front Range and in 2017, initiated as well what is now a very successful Apprentice Program. The company has received unanimous critical acclaim and standing ovations over the past ten years and besides presenting an annual season in the Denver metro area, tours extensively throughout the United States.

Get to know teacher Ms Sarah better!

Sarah grew up dancing at the school of the Washington Ballet and continued with ballet and other genres at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Following college, she performed with 4M Dance in San Francisco and Oakland, California. She returned to school to earn a M.Ed. degree in Early Childhood Education and later trained in Anne Green-Gilbert’s methodology of dance instruction at the Creative Dance Center in Seattle. She joined the CCB staff in 2015, focusing on dance with toddlers & parents together and the Young Dancer’s Program. Sarah was honored to attend the CSU Carl S. Bimson Dance/Movement Education Seminar for Colorado K-12 Educators during the summers of 2016-17. Sarah works as a teacher at First United Methodist Cooperative Preschool in addition to being a dance educator.

Ms Sarah teaches Move with Me on Tuesdays at 10am and Saturdays at 9:30am, as well as Creative Movement on Saturdays at 10:30am and Pre-Ballet 1 on Saturdays at 11:15am.

Here are some fun questions we asked Ms Sarah to get to know her a little better:

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Educating young people to be compassionate and empathetic through being a teacher and parent.

What is your favorite book? How about movie?

My favorite book is Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen.
My favorite movie is Singin’ In The Rain.

Is there a quote or saying that you live your life by?

Gotta dance! (Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain)

Would you rather vacation in Alaska or Hawaii, and why?

Alaska…small population, vast wintery wilderness, amazing wildlife and natural beauty.

What are your hobbies?

As a former zoo keeper, I love animals and have 2 dogs, a tortoise, lizards, a snake and an 80 gallon fish tank! Also reading, hiking and knitting.

If you were a superhero, what would your powers be?

Turn things into chocolate.

What three items would you take with you on a deserted island?

Radio for music & NPR, books and my dogs.

What is your favorite part about teaching at CCB?

Sharing my love of dance with kids, parents, and coworkers!