Paul Taylor Dance Company Will Return to Lincoln Center in November

The Paul Taylor Dance Company will return to the David H. Koch Theater for three weeks, November 3-22, 2026. The repertoire features classics by Paul Taylor that display his extraordinary range, from romantic to humorous and from poignant to controversial. The Season also includes world premieres by Resident Choreographers Lauren Lovette and Robert Battle; Pam Tanowitz's work will have its New York premiere, alongside the return of Battle's Under the Rhythm (2025). Longtime music partner Orchestra of St. Luke's will perform live, led by Taylor Music Director David LaMarche and Principal Guest Conductor Tara Simoncic. 

'This Season's Lincoln Center engagement brings together dances that speak to resilience, humanity, and the full range of emotional experience—works that offer beauty, humor, catharsis, and moments of profound reflection,' said Artistic Director Michael Novak. 'Paul Taylor's dances continue to illuminate what it means to be human in all its complexity, and that spirit carries through the new works and Company premieres this Season. Bringing together Resident Choreographers Lauren Lovette and Robert Battle, as well as Pam Tanowitz and dance innovator Alwin Nikolais, the repertory moves across an expansive musical landscape, from Schubert to experimental indie rock and contemporary orchestral scores. I hope audiences leave feeling moved, energized and reminded of the power of dance to connect us to one another.'

Continuing Artistic Director Michael Novak's commitment to developing new work and championing today's most compelling dance makers, the Season features two world premieres and one New York premiere. Resident Choreographer Lauren Lovette brings the music of American-Dutch experimental indie rock band The Books to life in her new work, 30 Incoming, with costumes and sets by Mark Eric and lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker. Resident Choreographer Robert Battle creates A Starling, a new work set to composer John Mackey's Bells on the Garment of Silence, featuring lighting by James Ingalls and stage design and costumes by artist Anne Patterson. Pam Tanowitz returns for her second commission for the Taylor Company with Messengers, Maidens and the End of Something Else, featuring designs by visual artist Sarah Crowner, costumes by Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme, and lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker, set to Schubert's Death and the Maiden.

The Season features two striking Company premieres. Robert Battle's No Longer Silent (2007) is choreographed to a long-forgotten score by Austro-Czech Jewish composer Erwin Schulhoff, who was banned in Nazi Germany and composed the work between 1922 and 1925. Schulhoff's music will be heard at the David H. Koch Theater for the first time. Also featured is Alwin Nikolais' groundbreaking Tensile Involvement (1953), a mesmerizing fusion of movement, lighting, and stage design in which dancers create a luminous 'cat's cradle' across the stage.

Paul Taylor's masterworks anchor the repertoire, from timeless audience favorites Esplanade and Brandenburgs to works returning to Lincoln Center for the first time in more than a decade, including Arabesque, …Byzantium, Spindrift, and 3 Epitaphs. Other Season highlights include Airs, Cloven Kingdom, Last Look, and Piazzolla Caldera.