Somewhere near the top of the modern-dance family tree, where the foliage is plentiful, you'll find Sylvia Waters. This season after 38 years on the job, Ms. Waters will step down as artistic director of Ailey II, the second company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where her main triumph has been to cultivate dancers and nurture their inner stars.
Life is about to change for Sylvia Waters. In June, the artistic director for the Ailey II Dance Company will retire from the company of young dancers she has led for nearly four decades.
Sylvia Waters had no intention of leading a dance company but the legendary Alvin Ailey saw a passion in her that he would not allow the world to pass by. Some 35 years ago, the late American choreographer and activist invited Waters to launch Ailey II — the junior company to his school and it has since has grown into an international success story.
Sylvia Waters, the former dancer who has led the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's second company, Ailey II, for nearly 40 years, will step down as artistic director in June 2012, the company will announce Thursday.
another changing of the guard is taking place at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Sylvia Waters, the longtime artistic director of Ailey II, will retire on June 30, the company plans to announce Thursday.
Sylvia Waters is the Artistic Director for Ailey II, the junior company of the renown Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which she has led since its inception in 1974. Waters was hand-picked by Alvin Ailey to lead the new venture and under her direction Ailey II has grown into a powerful company in its own right.
They're young, talented, athletic and - for the first time in almost 40 years - they're over here. About to make its UK debut at Glasgow's King's Theatre, Ailey II is the youth wing of the hugely popular Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The way Ailey II artistic director Sylvia Waters sees it, "dance is a profession that chooses you." Waters became one of the chosen as a junior high school student in Harlem learning time steps at the hands of a tough gym teacher.
"I was youngish," says Sylvia Waters of the time, in 1968, when she joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. "You can see that I'm trying not to be too specific," she jokes, speaking on a cell from a coffee shop in New York City.
Once, while on tour, Alvin Ailey noticed a young company member gazing wistfully out of the bus window. "She must be thinking about her son," he said to himself. And Sylvia Waters was.