Ever since Judith Jamison announced that she would end her 21-year tenure as artistic director of the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, anybody who is remotely moved by dance has looked forward to her final appearance in Philadelphia.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to Atlanta tonight. The Company is celebrating "Revelations at 50"...Which some consider one of the most popular ballet of all time.
Watching Renee Robinson perform the "umbrella" solo in Alvin Ailey's Revelations is to truly experience Ailey's legacy. Her regality, energy, and joy are reminiscent of a young Judith Jamison.
Few dance companies carry the worldwide name recognition of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. And even fewer dance works boast the influential artistic legacy of Ailey's Revelations, which the New York TImes hailed as "modern dance's unquestionable greatest hit."
At the Ailey Citigroup Theater last November, Dance Magazine honored four dance icoms for their enormous gifts to the community: Deborah Jowitt, Pilobolus, Irina Kolpakova, and Matthew Rushing.
Judith Jamison has an awful lot of which to be proud. Under her leadership, begun in 1989 after the death of choreographer Alvin Ailey, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has become one of the most popular and distinguished dance companies in the world.
Judith Jamison is leaving the post of artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with a smile and laughter. On Sunday night the company ended its annual season at City Center with a tribute to her that lasted over three hours.
"I have come a long way from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," observed Judith Jamison, retiring artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and American dance icon. "Yeah!" shouted back many in her adoring audience.
This has been a year of big transitions for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: the naming of Judith Jamison's successor, Robert Battle, the death of Ailey School director Denise Jefferson and longtime company dancer Matthew Rushing being appointed rehearsal director this past June.
Yannick Lebrun chosen by AAADT dancer Jamar Roberts, a 2007 "25 to Watch." I remeber him being this little, scrawny kid in The Ailey School - I mean, just like a pencil. He also did Ailey II, and I saw him perform 'Takademe' by Robert Battle. It was so astonishing because he has this really big facility and really wide range of movement in his limbs and extensions.