The beloved Carolyn Adams, central Paul Taylor dancer and educator: Women’s History Month in Dance, 2021

Women’s History Month in Dance 26, 27, 28. Among the most loved of American dancers has long been Carolyn Adams (born 1943), who danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in the years 1965-1982. She created roles in such classics as “Esplanade” (1975), “Cloven Kingdom” (1976), “Le Sacre du printemps: the rehearsal” (1980), “Arden Court” (1981). Her capacity for fleet lyricism and lucid musicality went to many hearts, while the Taylor company moved into the mainstream of American modern dance. Although I came too late to the Taylor company to see her live with it, she helped to introduce me to the style soon after leaving it: she spent time in London at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, where she presented a wonderful Taylor evening with colleagues. 

She has also been, for many decades, a dance educator. She and her sister Julia Adams Strandberg, also a professional dancer, founded the Harlem Dance Studio in 1973, creating dance classes for the underprivileged children of the area and introducing them to the arts. Since has also taught at Juilliard, the Ailey School, and many other central institutions of dance instruction. 

Last weekend, it was good to hear the intelligent authority with which she spoke on matters of re-staging dance in the NYU online symposium “The Alchemy and Effort of are-staging Dance”. It’s fifty-six years since Carolyn Adams graduated from Sarah Lawrence: she is going strong.

Wednesday 10 March

26: Carolyn Adams in “Esplanade”. Photo: Jack Mitchell.

27: Carolyn Adams in the foreground of the cast of Paul Taylor’s “American Genesis”, with Taylor and Bettie de Jong immediately behind her.

28: Carolyn Adams