Lauren Lovette personifies the intertwining of dance and choreography, moving seamlessly from one to the other. In spring 2022 she was invited to be the first ever Resident Choreographer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company and creates new work on the Company annually. Born in Thousand Oaks, CA, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11. She enrolled at SAB as a full-time student in 2006. In 2009, Ms. Lovette became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in 2010. Promoted to soloist in 2013 and to principal dancer in 2015. She began creating dance as a ballet student, for a 2007 choreographic workshop showing at the School of American Ballet (SAB). Another ballet, for the 2008 workshop, was soon followed by her being selected to create a work for the 2009 New York Choreographic Institute. As a principal dancer at New York City Ballet, Lovette choreographed for the 2016 Fall Fashion Gala. She was awarded the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU in 2018, and a year later created a second work for the Fashion Gala. In addition to Paul Taylor and NYC Ballet, her work has been commissioned and performed by American Ballet Theatre, Vail International Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Nevada Ballet Theatre, and showcased in a self-produced evening, Why It Matters. Lovette received the Clive Barnes Award for dance in December 2012 and was the 2012-2013 recipient of the City Ballet Janice Levin Award. In 2021, she stepped down from her position at NYCB in order to embark on a career devoted in more equal measure to dance and choreography. In 2023, Lovette joined the Nantucket Dance Festival as Co-Artistic Director.

Website: lauren-lovette.com
Instagram: @laurenlovette

John Harnage in Lauren Lovette’s Solitare, photo by Whitney Browne

Lee Duveneck in Lauren Lovette’s Pentimento, photo by Ron Thiele

Portrait of Lauren Lovette by Ruven Afanador

Robert Battle

Robert Battle’s journey to the top of the modern dance world began in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida where he showed artistic talent early and studied dance at a high school arts magnet program. From there he attended Miami’s New World School of the Arts and then the dance program at The Juilliard School where he met his mentor Carolyn Adams. He danced with Parsons Dance from 1994 to 2001, and set his choreography on that company starting in 1998. Mr. Battle founded his own Battleworks Dance Company in 2002 which performed extensively at venues including The Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow. A frequent choreographer and artist in residence at Ailey Ailey American Dance Theater since 1999, he set many of his works on the Ailey Company and Ailey II. In July 2011 he was personally selected by Judith Jamison to become Artistic Director of Ailey, making him only the third person to head the Company since it was founded in 1958. During his 12 years as Artistic Director he expanded the Ailey repertory with works by artists as diverse as Kyle Abraham, Mauro Bigonzetti, Ronald K. Brown, Rennie Harris, and Paul Taylor. He also instituted the New Directions Choreography Lab to help develop the next generation of choreographers. He stepped down from the position in 2023.

Mr. Battle was honored as one of the “Masters of African American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005, and he received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in 2007. He is a recipient of the 2021 Dance Magazine Award and has honorary doctorates from The University of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, and Fordham University. Mr. Battle was named a 2015 Visiting Fellow for The Art of Change, an initiative by the Ford Foundation. He was appointed Resident Choreographer of the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Fall 2024.

Bettie de Jong was born in Sumatra, Indonesia, and in 1946 moved to Holland, where she continued her early training in dance and mime. Her first professional engagement was with the Netherlands Pantomime Company. After coming to New York City to study at the Martha Graham School, she performed with the Graham Company, the Pearl Lang Company, John Butler and Lucas Hoving, and was seen on CBS- TV with Rudolf Nureyev in a duet choreographed by Paul Taylor. Ms. de Jong joined the Taylor Company in 1962. Noted for her strong stage presence and long line, she was Mr. Taylor’s favorite dancing partner and, as Rehearsal Director, was his surrogate in the studio and on tour for more than 40 years. In 2019, she received the 2019 Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching Award from American Dance Festival for her substantial contributions to the sustainment of the Taylor legacy.

Sharon Kinney, Renee Kimball, and Bettie de Jong in Piece Period, photo by Martha Swope.

Cathy McCann was a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 13 years. Among the 18 dances Mr. Taylor made on her were Mercuric Tidings, Brandenburgs, Musical Offering and Sunset. She was featured in five Taylor television specials, including the 1991 Emmy Award-winning Speaking in Tongues. In 1991, Mikhail Baryshnikov invited her to join the White Oak Dance Project, where she performed works by Mark Morris and Lar Lubovitch. Ms. McCann has staged Taylor dances for American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and Washington Ballet, among others, and her own choreography has been presented at New York City Center. She has been a faculty member of Adelphi University, Barnard College and Hofstra University, and has taught at the American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She was appointed Director of Taylor 2 in March 2019, and became Rehearsal Director in May 2020.

Ken Tosti and Cathy McCann in Roses, photo by Jack Mitchell.

Photo by Clare Fisher.