Sylvia Waters

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Showing 1 – 10 of 21 Items
Dance Teacher - 2025 Dance Teacher Award Honoree Sylvia Waters Has Inspired Early-Career Dancers to Tap Into their Humanity

Dance Teacher - 2025 Dance Teacher Award Honoree Sylvia Waters Has Inspired Early-Career Dancers to Tap Into their Humanity

When one thinks of the legendary dancer Sylvia Waters, excellence, poise, and artistry are among the first attributes that come to mind. But in the classroom, her heart, brilliance, and spirit are what have elevated and inspired thousands of dancers. Selected by Alvin Ailey himself to join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and later to lead the newly formed Ailey II in 1974, Waters has helped to mentor and elevate countless dancers through the transition from student to professional, all the while shaping a junior company into a globally respected institution.

Interview - “If You Can Walk, You Can Dance”: Inside the Whitney Museum’s Alvin Ailey Retrospective

Interview - “If You Can Walk, You Can Dance”: Inside the Whitney Museum’s Alvin Ailey Retrospective

In 1949, as legend has it, Alvin Ailey, then a young gymnast, followed school buddy and fellow future dance icon Carmen de Lavallade to the famed Lester Horton “Dance Theater” on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. It was a simple gesture that would lay the groundwork for the future of American concert dance. After Horton’s unexpected death, Ailey took over the Horton company for a while before starting the eponymous Alvin Ailey Company in New York, forming a beautiful, long and deeply intersectional lineage that incorporated dance, art, and innumerable interconnected histories culminating in the very first exhibit of the archival record of the Alvin Ailey Company, a show five years in the making and currently on view at The Whitney Museum of American Art.

The Guardian - It is spirituality, made visible

The Guardian - It is spirituality, made visible

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been performing its founder's signature work, Revelations, all over the world for 60 years. Lyndsey Winship talks to dancers past and present about the meaning and the humanity of this historic piece.

The Guardian - It Is Spirituality, Made Visible

The Guardian - It Is Spirituality, Made Visible

For more than 60 years, the spiritual power of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s signature work has stunned audiences including Obama. Here, company members explain what it’s like to dance a masterpiece.

Dance Magazine - History In Motion

One way students can explore dance's past is by learning historical repertory. Ailey/Fordham BFA students take Black Traditions in American Dance and World Dance History, which are often coordinated with repertory classes. "The movement shows you a different side of what you're learning in the classroom," says Marie Paspe, a recent graduate of the program, who learned Blues Suite and Revelations from Ailey II artistic director emerita Sylvia Waters.

Dance Magazine - Passing The Torch

At the opening night of Ailey II's New York season in April, the last under Sylvia Waters' direction, the house was full of tears, cheers, and - before any dancing had even occured - a standing ovation.

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Showing 1 – 10 of 21 Items