AUSTIN KELLY is from Overland Park, Kansas where he began dancing at Jody Phillips Dance Company and later studied at the University of Hartford’s The Hartt School where he graduated Summa Cum Laude earning a B.A. in Performing Arts Management with minors in Dance Performance and Business Management in 2021. He has performed works by Paul Taylor, José Limón, August Bournonville, Lar Lubovitch, and Stephen Pier. While earning his degree, he simultaneously studied Paul Taylor’s style through The Taylor School’s winter intensives, summer intensives, and virtual classes held during the Covid-19 pandemic. Austin danced with Alison Cook Beatty Dance after graduating. He joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Winter of 2021.
“Dance was athletic meets artistic, and about building community and camaraderie.”
Taylor’s work: “Communal. Organic. Liberating.”
Virtual classes: “Challenging, but fulfilling to be connected to the style I love.”
Taylor wisdom: “It doesn’t matter how high your extensions are; it’s about who you are as a person and what you bring to the dance.”
Role models: “The Taylor men who’ve come before me. It’s a privilege to be part of the lineage, the chosen few, to keep Paul’s work alive.”
Exquisite moment: “We’d performed Promethean Fire in Minneapolis, my first time on stage with the Company, and I was overcome thinking, Wow, I’m part of this community, this legacy. After the curtain fell, I bawled. The dancers hugged me; they’re such great people and artists.”
