By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo credit: Michael Mortley of M.M. Adjust Your Focus Artistic director and choreographer Ronald A. Taylor |
Artistic director and choreographer Ronald A. Taylor has turned his lived experience and investigation of mental health illness of Caribbean people living in Canada into a production, “Psychosis,” that will be showcased at the 30th anniversary celebration of his company, Ronald Taylor Dance, later this month.
The deeply personal work, which is of an interdisciplinary nature, was workshopped in 2019 as the first and only dance entrant in the history of the Rendezvous with Madness Festival presented by Workman Arts and considered the first and largest arts and mental health festival in the world.
“I experienced my psychosis which totally sort of eradicated my family life. Even though we’re close, I’m not with my family at anymore,” says Taylor, noting that this happened when he turned 48 years old. “It just turned my life upside down but I have to say within the journey of it that I had angels—case workers, psychiatrists, and what not in my aid to my recovery.”
In the throes of his psychosis, Taylor says he remembers being in a halfway house in Newmarket, Ontario, and “the sun coming over the roof of the house and I was standing on a bank, and that was my aha moment that I said to myself, Ronald Taylor, you’re not well.” He didn’t know where to turn but felt that he was on his way to recovery and ended up at Mount Sinai Hospital where he was diagnosed as having psychosis by two health practitioners.
Taylor said Dr. Adrian John Grek was the head psychiatrist at the hospital and took him on as a patient allowing him to express himself and examine his life through a series of questions. This gave the artistic director a holistic view of himself. “I was able to answer questions and sort of put my life into somewhat as close a semblance as when I was a sane person.”
The dancer also decided to look at the people from his childhood who society deemed as mad and “sort of pushed them in a corner” not understanding the mechanisms of psychosis, schizophrenia, and other issues related to mental health.
“The production is stories within a bigger story and it ends in a celebration because I believe life is a celebration. So the vignettes that you will get or the stories that you will get are of individuals who I observed as a child and even into my adult life who have gone through psychosis.”
Taylor notes that the Caribbean community does not deal with these types of matters in a favourable manner.
“In the production, is me also holding up a mirror to our community to say, hey, you know, we all have a degree of psychosis or mental illness but some of us manifest it and some of us don’t. Some of us get help before it happens and some of us don’t,” says Taylor, noting that he tries to encompass everything under one umbrella by highlighting the various headlines within psychosis.
Describing it as a very complex work, Taylor says there are many things happening on stage “that will draw your attention and pull your attention” to show how complicated life is “but at the end how joyous life can be.”
Taylor, who was born in Trinidad and trained at The Juilliard School in New York, a conservatory that is a world leader in performing arts education, says dance has always played an important part in his life.
As the eldest of three adopted children growing up with his godmother, he remembers the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition created by the country’s first prime minister Dr. Eric Williams who decided to counter the predominance of European culture by instituting the competition which brought folk culture, life, and the history of the twin-island republic to the fore.
Taylor says his family was very talented but being the second to last child he had to find his own pathway to the performing arts. He attended classes and went to the neraby community centre where his friends encouraged him to come and dance.
From the age of 17 to 48, he danced on many stages around the world—a fulfillment of his godmother’s advice to always make something of himself. “She didn’t say what but I chose dance as my way of making a contribution to humanity, of my way of moving forward, of my way of being a good citizen.”
Taylor doesn’t dance anymore but he is still at the helm of the company presenting work in which Caribbean people can see themselves and even question themselves about their lives and hope to become better citizens of the world.
He has put together a dynamic and experienced cast of eight performers, including dancers, musicians, and actors, to present this very important work in Toronto at the Native Earth’s Aki Studio, located at Daniel Spectrum on Friday May 26, and Saturday May 27, 2023, at 8pm.
As founder and artistic director, Taylor is no newcomer to the dance scene. Since its inception in 1993, Ronald Taylor Dance (formerly known as Canboulay Dance Theatre) has created over 20 works, including a full-length ballet, and has played to sold-out audiences across Ontario. Fresh from the 2022 virtual production “And Still we Risz,” a unique dance event featuring four duets, this recent production garnered rave online reviews both for the artistry and unique costume designs.
Taylor has a Master of Arts degree from York University and as a dance educator, he taught at the university’s Faculty of Fine Arts and at designated school arts programs across Ontario, Western Canada, Belize, USA and parts of the Caribbean. He was also selected to be part of The Djerassi Resident Artists Program in California, a program internationally recognized as one of the eminent artist residency programs for artists of superior talent, and who are chosen from a diverse range of backgrounds and geographical locations.
Since 2014, Taylor has served as rehearsal director for two of the leading dance companies in the diaspora. He is a valued member of the artistic team for Ballet Creole and KasheDance and in this capacity assumes a dual role of mentor, dramaturge and rehearsal director.
The dynamic creative continues to make his mark with his brand of contemporary Caribbean dance and critics have called his work “evocative’” placing its audience in another ‘”realm.” He is aptly able to blend various non-western disciplines with the formal training he received. In Taylor’s case, it was Caribbean folk, modern, and ballet that at the same time he skillfully aligns with artists who have acquired certain aspects of this training, during their personal artistic careers.
“Psychosis” is set to original live music which includes the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, the steel pan, and the skills of a master drummer. Taylor is well known for his unique collaboration with pannists at several of his earlier dance productions. The “Psychosis” creative team, with concept and choreography by Taylor, has set the stage for yet another exciting and spirited dance production, this time at the Aki Studio in Toronto.
