James and Kathy Taylor to perform at Coastal Bend College

Beeville dance team James and Kathy Taylor, joined by their friend, Las Vegas musical impressionist Carme Pitrello, will performance for the Beeville Concert Association’s final program of this season on Friday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Gertrude R. Jones Performing Arts Auditorium at Coastal Bend College in Beeville.

The Taylors have performed with Carme on cruise ships and in Las Vegas shows.

In Beeville, the Taylors offer dance instruction at the downtown Dance Studio. A few of their top students will preview their upcoming May 19 patriotic recital as part of the show.

Kathy began dancing at the age of nine when her mother enrolled her in ballet because she was turning into an awkward tomboy. She fell in love with ballet and wanted to be a prima ballerina in the Joffrey Company. However, she was told that she would have to lose 10 pounds to be accepted into the company. Already too thin, she gave up ballet and dance for a year before taking a job at the MGM Grand in Reno.

James Taylor was attending the University of Southern California Chico as a music major and needed two units to fill out his curriculum.  Someone suggested beginning ballet and he took to dancing. Adding more dance classes, he won a scholarship to the San Francisco Ballet, where he stayed for one year. After a month with the Oakland Ballet, he spent a year dancing with the Ballet Arlu.

After auditioning for the opening of the MGM in Reno, Taylor met Kathy and the two began working together. Two years later, they auditioned for a show in Acapulco at the Princess Hotel, performed there as the leading dancers/adagio team, and were married by the Bay of Acapulco.

The Taylors performed for the premiere season of “Star Search”; worked for the Princess Hotel in Freeport, Grand Bahama, where they added singing to their repertoire; had supporting roles in “Brigadoon” and “Dames at Sea” and leading roles in “Forbidden Broadway” at the Royal Palm Dinner Theater in Boca Raton, Florida; and performed on the SS Norway; and for Harry Blackstone’s Christmas show at the Tropicana Hotel/Casino in Atlantic City.

They spent six years at the famed Lido du Paris club in France, then returned to the U.S. to open for Andy Williams at his Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri, and to perform on the Regis and Kathy Lee Show. Beeville is now their home base, but they still perform for cruise lines when they’re not teaching local dance students.

Tickets for the March 23 show are $10 at the door for adults who do not hold BCA season tickets; CBC students are admitted free with their photo ID’s and students through high school age are admitted free.

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