Hope Boykin, 20-Year Veteran of Dance Theatre, Prepares for Final Bows. The internationally-acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has returned to the District much to the delight of faithful fans and fittingly during Black History Month, with a mixture of classic favorites, new productions and exciting premiered on the Kennedy Center's Opera House stage for seven performances - now through Feb. 9.
Increasingly, issues ripped from the headlines and our national debates - including race, violence and brutal episodes from history - have come to the fore in the works Battle commissions. Consider Tuesday's local premiere of "Ode," a skillful and delicate treatment of gun violence and its disproportionate claim on black men. "Ode" is by Jamar Roberts, recently named the troupe's first resident choreographer. He's also a standout dancer in the company whose appealingly soft physicality masked his strength in "A Case of You," a romantic duet with the equally effortless Jacqueline Green that both dancers whirled through beautifully, elevating choreographer Judith Jamison's overly sugary concept.
Two major dance companies take very different approaches to the topic of race in productions debuting on Atlanta stages this month.... Meanwhile, during a recent rehearsal at The Ailey Studios in New York, a white woman and a black man stood side by side facing opposite directions in a confined space. She took his hand, pulled away in taut counterbalance, then snapped like a rubber band to his other side, one leg sweeping open as she turned away from him. The duet depicts an imaged encounter that could have sparked the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre - considered one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. It's the subject of Donald Byrd's "Greenwood," a new contemporary ballet slated for its Atlanta debut during Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Feb. 20-23 run at the Fox Theatre.
Dahsir Hausif began dancing the way a lot of young boys do: "My mom jut dragged me to an audition one day," he says, "and I was like, O.K., I guess I'm doing this now." He was 6. At the time, he says, surfing was his main love. But that audition at the Ailey School in New York, from which the most talented of students go on to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and other famous dance companies, changes his life. What immediately pulled him in was its dedicated boys' program.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre returns to the fabulous Fox Theatre February 20-23.
Modern dance impresario Alvin Ailey once asked photographer Jack Mitchell to shoot publicity images of his dancers for their next performance without even knowing the title of their new work. Seeing “choreography” in the images Mitchell produced, Ailey leapt into an ongoing professional relationship with Mitchell. “I think that speaks to the trust that they had in one another,” says Rhea Combs, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Ailey “knew it would work out somehow, some way.” This partnership, which began in the 1960s, led to the production of more than 10,000 memorable images, and the museum has now made those photos available online.
New York is a city of opportunities. People come here from all over the world to achieve their dreams and I love the diversity it creates: the sense of constant cultural exchange. Yannick Lebrun is a modern dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Originally from French Guiana, he moved to New York 15 years ago and lives in Washington Heights.
When the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre returns to Atlanta each year, it’s a joyous occasion like a family reunion, if your relatives happened to be brilliant dancers. The ensemble will perform at the Fox Theatre from Feb. 20-23. Ailey Artistic Director Robert Battle and choreographer Donald Byrd will speak at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights on Thursday, Jan. 16 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event, “Greenwood & Stories From The Soil: Reveal, Remember, Reconcile” is free and open to the public. Battle and Byrd joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about the dance.
Sandra Bookman sits down with Director of Ailey Extension, Lisa Johnson-Willingham to discuss the Kids and Teens Sunday Dance Series and all classes offered through the Ailey Extension, bringing “real classes for real people.”
Jacqueline Green was a shy 13-year-old when her mother, considering possible schools in Baltimore, observed two qualities that her daughter possessed. "You're the artsy child," Ms. Green recalled her saying. "You're flexible." Soon after, Ms. Green found herself at a dance audition for Baltimore School for the Arts. It was not only her first audition, it was also her first ballet class. "I had on Payless tights and shoes, and I don't know where we found a leotard," Ms. Green said. "I had my hair slicked back in this bun and I thought: 'People actually do this? Holding our arms out is tiring.'"