Zellerbach Hall was packed and spirits were high for opening night of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 56th visit to Berkeley.
The annual DC Gala Benefit of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater coincided with the company's week-long residency at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
As Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates its 65th anniversary year, the organization has embarked on an initiative to honor the legacy of its founder, Alvin Ailey, by providing free educational resources through PBS.
Acclaimed choreographer Alvin Ailey infused his life story and Black cultural roots into his modern dance works, which have been enjoyed by millions since he first founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 in New York City. Early dances such as Revelations remain favorites in the company repertory today, but many people don’t know the background of the artist, who died in 1989.
When 31-year-old professional dancer Coral Dolphin was 5 years old, she saw the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company perform at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Dolphin, who is from South Central, remembers feeling a sense of joy and excitement to see dancers perform the late world-renowned Alvin Ailey’s magnum opus Revelations in person.
Houston-born dancer and arts educator Isabel Wallace-Green vividly recalls seeing a performance of Alvin Ailey’s landmark 1960 dance work Revelations as a child, peering over a high balcony in Jones Hall. “The dancers were pretty small!” laughs Wallace-Green, who nevertheless was captivated, especially by a section in Revelations titled “Wade in the Water,” where translucent white, cobalt, and aquamarine cloths are stretched across the stage to evoke baptismal waters and — for African American slaves — the riverbed as a pathway to freedom. “I’d never seen anything like that.”
A class unto itself: Seeing a performance of Alvin Ailey is a transformative experience and the Benefit Dinner and After Party for the weeklong engagement of the Company was a great success.
This March, audiences in Houston will have the opportunity to experience a historic dance company and a historic work of art. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was founded by its namesake, dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, in 1958. Soon after, drawing upon music from gospel, spirituals, and blues, he started creating a work that evoked childhood images of his family and of attending church in Rogers, Texas, which he called “blood memories.” The result was his iconic work, Revelations, that premiered in New York in 1960. In over six decades, the work has been performed all over the world. In 1968, it was part of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and has been presented numerous times at the White House.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been one of the most renowned dance companies in the world for over 60 years. Legendary visionary Alvin Ailey founded the organization in 1958, bringing his dream of preserving and enriching the African American experience through American modern dance to fruition. Since its inception, Ailey’s programs continue to provide opportunities for underserved communities within the world of dance.
Jamar Roberts did not initially know he would create a piece to address gun violence. But he did know he needed dance to cope, after years of headlines about its victims: Michael Brown, Tamar Rice, Philando Castile, Jordan Edwards and many, many more. "It's the first thing I thought I needed to do — just for my own self, to help process what I was seeing in the media," Roberts told NPR. "It didn't really come out like 'Oh, I want to make a dance about this.' I just started sort of moving. It just appeared."