Laurie Taylor
Laurie Michelle Taylor is a Liberian American choreographer, speaker and creative entrepreneur. Her work centers around intersectionality and African diaspora consciousness in the worlds of the arts, business and culture. She implements progressive theoretical frameworks based in performative practice, which can be applied across a multitude of platforms, genres and industries. Her work as a choreographer and artistic director has morphed into new iterations, including CEO of Soul Movement Global, a consulting firm specializing in movement, creative thought and artistic ideation as a means of problem-solving in today’s complex markets. Her work has earned her fellowships with Alvin Ailey’s New Directions Choreographers Lab, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation LSC Grant and a Diversity Initiative Grant from University of Delaware in Newark. She is a two-time Jerome Foundation/Harlemstage awardee and has worked with artists such as Angelique Kidjo and Darin Atwater’s Soulful Symphony. With a strong interest in contemporary African identity and percussive sound perception, Laurie’s work spans several continents, with creative and social impact projects in Liberia, Nigeria and Ghana, respectively. She has toured nationally and internationally with her company, Laurie M. Taylor/Soul Movement, as well as with Nicholas Leichter Dance, Urban Bush Women, Francine E. Ott/The Walk and many other organizations and has performed at The Joyce Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Madison Square Garden in New York, the Strathmore Center in North Bethesda, Maryland, and elsewhere. Laurie is a consummate artist/erudite, having held such positions as visiting assistant professor of Dance at University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia; Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles; The Ailey/Fordham BFA program, Bronx, New York; and The Society of Performing Arts in Lagos, Nigeria. Through divine providence, she continues to thrive, grow and share as an artist, intellectual and human/spirit being.