A lifelong pursuit: officially retired after a career of nearly thirty years, Carolyn Adams remains a mover and shaker in the dance world by holding down key summer jobs at Jacob's Pillow and Saratoga

Dance Magazine, July, 1994 by Muriel Topaz

Pick any lively adjective - vivacious, energetic, potent, indefatigable, peripatetic - and you have just begun to describe Carolyn Adams. Until recently a sunny, dedicated member of Paul Taylor Dance Company, she now lives a life too action-packed to be called retirement - director of the bachelor of fine arts program at City College in New York; a faculty member at the Juilliard School; a licensed real estate broker; founder of the Central Harlem Brownstone Preservation Committee; cofounder of the Harlem Dance Foundation; a board member of Dance USA and chair of its task force on education; codirector of Fantasy Fare Caterers; author of the long-running children's theater production, Santa Claus and the Unicorn, and of a book, coauthored with her sister, Julie Adams Strandberg, entitled American Education in the Arts: A Balancing of Visions for Cultural Transformation, published by Jay Ess Press.

This summer she is hard at work in two positions: director of education at Jacob's Pillow and director of the New York State Education Department's modern dance summer program at Saratoga Springs. Interviewing Carolyn Adams is definitely like being caught in a tornado.

We started at the beginning. Carolyn, as she puts it, had the good fortune "to be born the second daughter of great people." Her father. Julius, left his native Georgia at an early age to make his way in Chicago. From his initial job as copyboy on a black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, he worked his way up to become managing editor and then assumed the same duties in New York City for the Amsterdam News.

There he met Olive, a musical prodigy. According to Carolyn, the two were "married on their lunch hour, and Julie was born nine months and one day later." Carolyn's grandfather on her mother's side, the youngest in his family, was the first to be born free from slavery; her aunt was a deputy mayor of New York under Robert Wagner. The household, a tiny apartment in Washington Heights, was the center of all kinds of political and social activity. The Global News Syndicate, a black newspaper conglomerate, was founded there, and much work was done for the Republican party, since Carolyn's father believed that blacks needed to have a voice in both of the major political parties.

His advice to Carolyn, when her career aspirations became clear, was, "If you want to dance, do it well, know how to talk about it, teach it, and write about it." That's exactly what she continues to do.

She attended the Ethical Culture school, where she studied dance with the mother of Graham dancer Jane Dudley. While she continued her secondary education at Fieldston School, she studied dance at the Graham school with Linda Hodes and Nelle Fisher. Adams chose to attend Sarah Lawrence College because of its strong dance program, directed by Bessie Schonberg' and its courses in French (since she planned to spend her junior year abroad). It was a golden time for the college; among her fellow students were Meredith Monk, Lucinda Childs, Elizabeth Keen, Lauren Persichetti, Beverly Emmons, Brian De Palma, Carly Simon, and Jill Clayburgh. Her teachers included Donald McKayle, David Wood, Ruth Currier, Lola Huth, Murray Louis, Judy Dunne, and, for ballet, Henry Danton.

"All that, however, was dance class." Adams admits, "Real dancing was what I saw on |Your Show of Shows' [Sid Caesar's television show with the Hamilton Trio] and in movies such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. My heroes were Ruby Keeler and Bambi Linn. For me, dance was energetic, risky, colorful. Dancing as a career was not a clearly formed idea. Wanting to dance wasn't the same as having a professional career."

She changed her mind in the last semester of her senior year when she attended Paul Taylor's audition. Adams hadn't really thought very much about taking the audition; it was just that she had a car and several of her fellow students wanted to get there. But Taylor's movement fit her body like a glove, and they both knew that she was right for the company. Taylor convinced Bessie Schonberg to allow Adams to spend fifteen hours a week learning his repertoire during her final semester, and the following fall she joined the company.

Adams speaks with passion about her years with Taylor. Theirs was a special relationship, and her abilities and movement preferences clearly influenced Taylor's growth as a choreographer. "I don't feel I was an inspiration to Paul in the way Bettie de Jong was, for example; I do think I had a lot to do with the nature of his work. Much of his backing movement came from the way I move naturally. Between us there was total trust, loyalty, and a great deal of mutual respect. I understood his movement quickly and could reproduce it even when he forgot. I adored dancing with him onstage; he was a loving, giving partner. I never felt like the boss was watching, but I just couldn't fall off releve if he was looking at me. The company was like a family. I joined it when there were no theaters and no audience. We used to say things like, There weren't many of them, but they hated us' or, They loved us - both of them.'