Clay Taliaferro

Clay Taliaferro has had an extensive involvement with American dance, earning an international reputation as an award-winning performer, teacher, and choreographer. He was, most notably, a principal dancer and guest artist with the Jos√© Lim√≥n Dance Company for many years, and also served the company as Assistant Artistic Director to Ruth Currier. Prior to being invited by José Limón to join his company, and to perform his roles in twentieth century masterworks of choreography (the Moor, the Traitor, Emperor Jones, etc.), Taliaferro was a principal dancer and Acting Artistic Director for the Donald McKayle Dance Company. In addition to dancing in the companies of other major choreographers (Anna Sokolow, Emily Frankel, Stuart Hodes, Sophie Maslow, Lotte Goslar, Buzz Miller), in television, film, and Broadway productions, he co- founded/directed and performed with the Theatre Dance Trio.

Taliaferro has choreographed a sizable body of work, and has received grants for his creative work from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Dance Legacy Institute, the Duke University Institute of the Arts, and the Limón Dance Company. Taliaferro continues to make new work in collaboration with contemporary composers and visual artists, and serves the Lim√≥n dance Foundation in the “important work” of remounting works of the Limón canon onto companies throughout the world. Following twenty years as a professor at Duke University, professor emeritus Taliaferro, has received numerous awards including the honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island College. Taliaferro’s early theatre study was at the Gene Frankel Theatre Academy in New York City and at the Boston Conservatory.