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.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
Founding, directing and choreographing for Zikr Dance Ensemble
What is your favorite book? How about movie?
Book: Conversations with God.
Movie: The Red Shoes.
Is there a quote or saying that you live your life by?
Martha Graham: “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
Would you rather vacation in Alaska or Hawaii, and why?
Alaska – I was there just recently. There is still awesome untouched beauty.
What are your hobbies?
Graphic Design, Costuming
If you were a superhero, what would your powers be?
To always be in the moment and connected to Source.
What three items would you take with you on a deserted island?
Music, laptop, and my kitty
What is your favorite part about teaching at CCB?
The students are well trained and dedicated.
David Taylor’s Biography
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.
