Ailey II composed of some of the country's best young dancers, will perform this week at the Folly Theater. Alvin Ailey, the founder of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, always wanted a separate company to allow students of the Ailey School to get a taste of the professional dance world before they embarked on their own dance careers.
Usually when you’re watching second companies perform you anticipate small mess-ups: slips, nervousness, unclean pirouettes, lack of confidence. However, this was far from the truth with Ailey II at the Joyce Theater.
On the road and out of town for many months of the year, ABT II, Ailey II, and Taylor 2 perform a signal service for the arts by bringing live dance to cities and schools across the U.S.
Dance is a renewable resource, whose passions will never run dry. To sample this abundant energy, audiences need only visit the “1, 2, 3 Festival”, and greet the next generation of youngsters discovering an irrepressible urge to soar.
Here's your chance to play talent scout.
After a grueling 30 city tour over a six month span of time, Ailey II eagerly returns home to take the stage at The Joyce Theater in New York.
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.
It's the last month to catch Ailey's terrific junior company (where most of the main company began their careers) on their 28-city tour.
Ailey II dancers Ghrai DeVore and Renaldo Gardner, both 19, received scholarships from the Dizzy Feet Foundation. They will train at The Ailey School.
Often dubbed “the future of modern dance,” Ailey II comes to town this week with one goal in mind — exposure.