Norfolk, VaA (WVEC) - Students from all over Hampton Roads enjoyed a performance by the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Friday. Around 2,000 students enjoyed a special matinee show at Chrysler Hall thanks to the Virginia Arts Festival.
Focus on South Florida host Rudabeh Shahbazi sits down for an extended one-on-one interview with Robert Battle. The Liberty City native is the creative director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
In 2016, during the U.S. presidential elections, world-class dancer Jamar Roberts was on a European tour. He said that everywhere he went, people seemed to be musing over the controversial political scenario. “It seemed like the whole world was watching for the outcome,” he said, “and sharing the same feelings of anxiety and uncertainty as to its and impact on everyone.” Roberts, a Miami native, processes that tumultuous moment through physical language. It was in that context that his choreography debut for the Alvin Ailey American Theater emerged. “Members Don’t Get Weary” is an artistic portrait and meditation on the current American social landscape, it speaks to a mix of worries about the economy, social injustice and violence.
Seeing Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for the first time is a rite of passage for anyone who loves dance (and for plenty of people who didn't know they did). Jamar Roberts first saw the company perform in Fort Lauderdale when he was a kid growing up in South Dade. Like so many of us, the first Ailey dance that swept him away was "Revelations," and for him, it was specifically the "Sinner Man" section. He's told he cried, though he doesn't remember that.
Jacquelin Harris is telling her story through dance. Harris, a Charlotte native, joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2014, and comes home for their Belk Theater performances Feb. 27-28.
NBC 6 Reporter Michael Spears explains a Liberty City native's journey with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Alvin Ailey troupe revives classic work during run at the Fox. The sidewalks around the former Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter are now empty, but a few blocks up Peachtree Street, near the Fox Theatre, a woman is sometimes seen hundred in dirty blankets, sleeping on the sidewalk or staring into space. She's a reminder that "Shelter," choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's 1988 work on homelessness, remains relevant. The sign of people living on the streets troubled Zollar 38 years ago, when she first moved to New York City.
There are few things in life more romantic than dancing. And that's especially true for a pair of dancers with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, who will spend Valentine's Day together onstage at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
News 12's Lenneia Batiste explores a fitness class at Ailey Extension that teaches all the latest Indian dances while helping people burn calories.
Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims are two of the longest tenured dancers in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company — one of the best known and most loved dance companies in the country. They're also married. The pair have danced together for years, forging their love story in the hard work, pain and drama of the dance world. And yet, it endures.