Paul Taylor was one of America’s greatest choreographers. For over 60 years, right up until his death in 2018, the enigmatic New Yorker created around 150 unique modern dances, gaining worldwide recognition and respect. Paul Taylor – Creative Domain is a fascinating documentary by Emmy award-winning director Kate Geis, exploring the creation and development of one of Paul’s dances, 2010’s ‘Three Dubious Memories’. This is a work that explores how three different people will remember the same event differently.
Geis combines interviews with Taylor, his composer and his company of dancers, with footage of the rehearsals for the dance – from the music and initial choreography concepts through to the final dress rehearsal and the first public performance. The result is a unique insight into the creation of a masterpiece of work. Everyone involved exudes a gentle strength, and this 
combines with talent, deep emotion and genuine warmth for each other to provide a beautiful lesson in teamwork. Taylor considered each dance to be a painting, with each dancer a paint colour to add to the painting. He took inspiration from poetry, art, nature, and human behavior to produce work covering all human emotions. His calm confidence, lack of ego, attention to detail, and father-like approach gave his dancers the confidence to push themselves to the limits of their imaginations and athleticism. There is a lot of non-verbal communication between the team. This documentary is essentially a piece about the creative process rather than insight into the individual personalities of the members of the dance company. This is refreshing as all-too-often we end up focusing on people rather than process when considering the creative arts. Recommended.
Paul Taylor Creative Genius is now available on VOD and DVD Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
P.S. You may also like to check out https://queerguru.com/paul-taylor-dance-company-mark-the-20th-anniversary-of-9-11-with-promethean-fire/
