
Taylor Stanley

Taylor G. Stanley (born May 30, 1991) is an American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
Early life.
Stanley was born in Philadelphia to a mixed-race family, and was raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania. At age 3, he started learning ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop at The Rock School for Dance Education. Initially he thought he would pursue a career in commercial dance, but his parents and teachers encouraged him to focus on ballet. At age 15, Stanley attended a summer course at the Miami City Ballet School. Two years later, Stanley attended a summer intensive at the School of American Ballet in New York City, then was asked there and to train full time for a year. At the workshop performance of SAB, he performed George Balanchine's "Stars and Stripes". He also received the Mae L. Wien Awards for Outstanding Promise that year.
Career.
Stanley became an apprentice at the New York City Ballet in 2009, and joined the corps de ballet the following year. While he was still in the corps, he danced Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet". Stanley received the Janice Levin Dancer Award in 2011–12, which is given to promising corps dancers of NYCB.
He was promoted to soloist in 2013 and principal dancer in 2016. He had dance lead roles in George Balanchine's and Jerome Robbins' works. For his debut as the title role of "Apollo", Stanley was coached by Craig Hall, the first African-American dancer in the company to dance that role. He had also originated roles with choreographers such as Justin Peck, Lauren Lovette and Kyle Abraham. In 2019, Stanley won a Bessie Awards for Abraham's "The Runaway".
Outside of New York City Ballet, Stanley danced with his colleague Troy Schumacher's side project, BalletCollective. He also took classes at Nederlands Dans Theater and studied Gaga at Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv.
Personal life.
Stanley is openly gay.
As of 2015, Stanley is pursuing a bachelor of arts degree through St. Mary's College of California's LEAP program.
Selected repertoire.
Stanley's repertoire with the New York City ballet includes: