Amid the flourishing 1930s American modern dance scene, Lester Horton began shaping a technique that would serve as the foundation for much of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater repertoire. "Alvin was never shy in saying that Horton was most influential to his choreography," says Ana Marie Forsythe, chair of the Horton department at The Ailey School.
The Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp at Cal Performances is a six-week intensive dance camp designed to teache discipline and inspire creativity through dance to middle school children (ages 11-14) of Oakland.
This summer was a time for family, fun and life skills for 100 Miami-Dade County middle school students participating in the Alvin Ailey Camp, June 27-Aug. 6 at the Adriencce Arsht Center of the Performing Arts in downtown Miami.
When Nehprii Amenii of Brooklyn walked into Newark Arts High School for the first time this summer, she was prepared to be hit with what she called "full cannons of attitude." Since then, she has been spending weekdays teaching creative communication to 11 to 14 year-olds as part of AileyCamp, a full-day summer program offered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and financed, in Newark, entirely by the Prudential Foundation.
On the vast stage of UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, rows of middle-school children are standing in vaguely organized lines. They're trying hard to be attentive, but they look fidgety, the boys pulling fitfully at their shirts, the girls adjusting their leotards.
"Revelations" had its debut Jan. 31, 1960, at the 92nd St. Y, after which it became the signature choreographic piece for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the most performed work of contemporary modern dance in the world.
While AileyCamp at the University of California-Berkeley celebrates its 10th anniversary this summer, across the country in Newark, New Jersey, the newest location of the innovative program will celebrate its first season.
A new branch of AileyCamp has sprouted in Newark, NJ. For over 20 years, the full-scholarship day camp, a program of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has been reaching urban students across the U.S., harnessing the power of movement to foster self-confidence, creative expression, and critical thinking.
The Prudential Foundation is funding Newark's first AileyCamp, a summer camp that embodies Prudential's belief in arts education as a means of revitalizing struggling communities while educating the future work force.
Who's who when it comes to the most important private funders of New York City's unparalleled cultural offerings? The list would be long. But it would have to include these power patrons of the arts.