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.
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.
Watching "Celebrating 'Revelations' at 50," the film tribute by Judy Kinberg that precedes the piece during the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's current season, it's notable how rough hewn - and powerful - the dancing looks in the historical footage of Ailey and others performing in that work.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater featured the old and the new at its opening night Wednesday. It's signature performance, "Revelations," marked its 50th anniversary and coincided with the premiere of "The Hunt," choreographed by incoming artistic director Robert Battle.
In 1976, Alvin Ailey paid homage to Duke Ellington in a season that produced a particularly majestic dance: 'Three Black Kings'. The work - depicting King Balthazar, King Solomon and Martin Luther King Jr. - hasn't veen seen in its entirety in more than 30 years.
When I was ten in Jacksonville, Florida. My family moved there for a short period of time after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Everything in Miami was demolished, and that's when I started. There was a young lady that lived next door, and she needed guys to basically lift girls at an afterschool dance program. I said, "Sure," because I lived right down the street.
Members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform 'Revelations' nearly as often as ordinary people brush their teeth. This magnificent work, created by Alvin Ailey in 1960, is a dance on land and in water, a journey through African-American spiritual music and, for dancers, an act of reverence for the generations that came before.
Matthew Rushing moves like butter. He blends beautifully in any group, but as a soloist has a presence that simply rocks. During his 18-year tenure at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, he has shone in such works as Ailey's Revelations, A Song for You, Blues Suite, Pas de Duke, Reflections in D, to name only a few.
You see it everywhere in contemorary and modern choreography. It's the "wow" step that takes you from standing to the floor with just a simple bend of the knees: the hinge.