Carolyn Adams
Artistic Director  

Carolyn Adams, founding Artistic Director of the School of Dance was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, where she created roles in the Taylor masterpieces Esplanade, Big Bertha, and Airs. She performed in Mr. Taylor’s classic Aureole, with Rudolf Nureyev as part of Nureyev and Friends in 1975. In 1973, she, her sister Julie Strandberg, and their parents established the Harlem Dance Foundation—a community school for children and an arts facility for people of all ages. Ms. Adams is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is curator of the American Dance Legacy Institute. She has served as an arts education consultant to numerous institutions including The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She also has served on panels for the New York State Council on the Arts, the NEA, and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

Ms. Adams has assembled a diverse faculty who have achieved prominence in specific techniques and dance forms. Past faculty have included Julie Strandberg, Ruth Andrien, Donald McKayle, Ethel Winter, Sophie Maslow, David Parsons, Mary Anne Santos Newhall, Daniel Nagrin, Mary Corey, and Danny Grossman. Past companies have included David Parsons, Taylor II, Danny Grossman, and Battleworks.