Success Quote by Paul Taylor

There is something almost disarmingly plain about Paul Taylor framing ambition as “my main goal,” as if the whole messy business of ego, loyalty, and artistic restlessness can be flattened into a tidy sentence. That’s the point. In the dance world, where careers are built on ensembles, repertory, and institutions, “solo career” reads like a quiet act of boundary-setting. It’s not a tantrum; it’s a repositioning.

Taylor’s phrasing does two things at once. First, it signals control. Dancers are famously at the mercy of choreographers, casting, injuries, and the shrinking window of a performing body. Saying “I want to keep doing that” is a small insistence on agency: I’m choosing the work, not just surviving it. Second, it politely dodges the drama implied by leaving a company or stepping away from a collective identity. The repetition of “goal” and “keep” suggests momentum already underway, a narrative of continuity rather than rupture. It’s career management spoken in dancer’s diction: understated, forward-facing, allergic to spectacle.

Context matters because Taylor lived through an era when modern dance in America was professionalizing fast, and branding was becoming a survival skill. A “solo career” isn’t only about dancing alone; it’s about authorship, recognition, and the right to steer your own aesthetic. The line is pragmatic, but the subtext is daring: I’m not here to be a piece of someone else’s vision. I’m here to be the name on the program.