Taylor Company Commission Recipients Announced

Amy Hall Garner and Omar Román De Jesús were selected by Artistic Director Michael Novak to choreograph through the Taylor Company Commissions program, to be premiered during fall 2022.

"I am excited to invite Amy and Omar, dynamic choreographers with compelling and distinct voices, to create works on the Company," said Artistic Director Michael Novak. "Amy's dances thrill audiences in both the commercial and concert worlds through architecture, athleticism, musicality and visual momentum. Omar's work imaginatively layers a powerful movement vocabulary with emotional complexity. I can't wait to see what these dance makers create on our dancers."

Works created by Ms. Garner and Mr. De Jesús will have world premieres along with those by Peter Chu, Michelle Manzanales and Resident Choreographer Lauren Lovette in 2022. Previous Taylor Commissioned Choreographers are Kyle Abraham, Bryan Arias, Doug Elkins, Margie Gillis, Larry Keigwin, Pam Tanowitz, Doug Varone and Lila York.

Amy Hall Garner is a native of Huntsville, Alabama, and a graduate of The Juilliard School. She has been commissioned to make works by Ailey II, ABT Studio Company, Collage Dance Collective, The Juilliard School, The Ailey School, Barnard College, The University of the Arts, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Point Park University and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Ms. Garner has created virtual works for BalletX, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Guggenheim Museum's Works & Process Digital Series, ABT Studio Company, Boulder Ballet and a virtual collaboration between Miami City Ballet and Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. She coached Grammy Award winner Beyoncé, providing additional choreography for "The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour." Her theatrical choreography credits include "The Color Purple" (Milwaukee Repertory Theater) and associate choreographer for "Invisible Thread" (Second Stage Theater, NYC). In 2018, she was selected to participate in Alvin Ailey's New Directions Choreography Lab supported by the Ford Foundation. Ms. Garner was one of the first recipients of the Joffrey Ballet's Choreography of Color Award (now titled Winning Works). She is an adjunct professor at New York University's New Studio on Broadway at Tisch School of the Arts, and a Virginia B. Toulmin Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Omar Román De Jesús, from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, is a recipient of the 2020 Jacob's Pillow: The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship. He has been commissioned twice by Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña to create work for the International Dance Festival of Puerto Rico, where he was awarded the Ambassador of Dance medal. Mr. De Jesús has won the Joffrey Academy of Dance's Winning Works Choreographic Competition and the Whim W'Him's Choreographic Shindig. He has received the Audience Award at The Dance Gallery Festival, first place prize at the Reverb Dance Festival, and the Parsons Dance GenerationNOW Commission for their 2017 Joyce Season. He has also created work for Bruce Wood Dance, Jacob Jonas The Company, and educational institutions including The Ailey School, Kennesaw State University, James Madison University, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. This past fall, his works "Sombreristas" and "Los Perros del Barrio Colosal" were presented at PRISMA International Dance Festival (Panama), Encuentro ENDANZANTE (Colombia), and the Chop Shop: Bodies of Work Contemporary Dance Festival (Seattle). Mr. De Jesús is the recipient of 2022 commissions with Ballet Hispánico Instituto Coreográfico, Limón Second Company, Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, MOVE NYC, Jerusalem International Choreographic Competition, and Baryshnikov Arts Center. He is on the faculty of The Ailey School, and has taught workshops and master classes all over the world for dancers, special needs communities, people with physical disabilities, and marginalized communities. Mr. De Jesús is the artistic director and choreographer of dance company Boca Tuya.

Leadership funding provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy. Lincoln Center Season made possible by Marjorie S. Isaac. Major support provided by The SHS Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold, the Howard Gilman Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation. Additional major funding provided by S&P Global, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Support for the creation of new work provided by Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Public support provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional public support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul Taylor Dance Company gratefully acknowledges the estates of Harlan Morse Blake and Mary J. Osborn for their transformational gifts.

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