Press Coverage

March 03, 2020

Brick Underground - I Live Next To A World-Class Dance Institution. It Changed By Sons' Lives

When Lucy wanted to find a place in her Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood to send her two young and very active boys, she didn’t have to look very far. Her family lives next to Alvin Ailey, the famous dance school. At the time, she had no idea what a big impact weekly dance lessons would make on her sons’ lives, or how the culture and discipline of dance would shape them as teens who are now in high school. Here’s Lucy’s story.

February 20, 2020

Atlanta Journal Constitution - Alvin Ailey 'Revelations' Comes To Fox

For 21 years former Alvin Ailey principal dancer Nasha Thomas has traveled to Atlanta with a singular mission. In an age when many public schools have gutted or cut back on their arts programs, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Thomas - in a long and important collaboration with the city - haven shown the value of art in individual lives. The founder of the renowned New York City-based Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey, who died in 1989, was an advocate for the importance of arts education and believed that bringing the arts to underprivileged communities and to public schools was vital.

February 10, 2020

The Washington Post - Dancing With The Stars

Alvin Ailey company features six local children at the Kennedy Center in its signature work. The dancers emerged onto the blue-lit stage wearing all white. In rows of two - their hands clasped - they slid across the theater floor, threw their arms above their heads and twirled. In front of them, 2,000 people sat in red velvet seats at the Kennedy Center's Opera House. But the dancers remained poised - not even the raucous cheering that echoed through the theater could melt the stern looks from the dancers' faces.

January 24, 2020

Smithsonian Magazine - Trove Of Stunning Dance Photography Now Online

Modern dance impresario Alvin Ailey once asked photographer Jack Mitchell to shoot publicity images of his dancers for their next performance without even knowing the title of their new work. Seeing “choreography” in the images Mitchell produced, Ailey leapt into an ongoing professional relationship with Mitchell. “I think that speaks to the trust that they had in one another,” says Rhea Combs, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Ailey “knew it would work out somehow, some way.” This partnership, which began in the 1960s, led to the production of more than 10,000 memorable images, and the museum has now made those photos available online.

January 16, 2020

WABE - Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Highlights The Importance Of History In Dance

When the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre returns to Atlanta each year, it’s a joyous occasion like a family reunion, if your relatives happened to be brilliant dancers. The ensemble will perform at the Fox Theatre from Feb. 20-23. Ailey Artistic Director Robert Battle and choreographer Donald Byrd will speak at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights on Thursday, Jan. 16 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event, “Greenwood & Stories From The Soil: Reveal, Remember, Reconcile” is free and open to the public. Battle and Byrd joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about the dance.

December 21, 2019

New York Daily News - 'Keeper Of Flame' - G'Bye

After 48 years with the celebrated Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, both as performer and choreographer, Masazumi Chaya is hanging up his dancing shoes. The Japanese-American artist will start the new year by retiring as the modern dance company's artistic director. But the man known as "The Keeper of the Flame" to some colleagues is working until his very last day with the renowned dance troupe, whose members will celebrate his legacy with a special evening of performances on Sunday at New York's City Center. He got his nickname for preserving the New York City-based company's repertoire and for training generations of dancers through the past three decades.

December 12, 2019

Playbill - Celebrating Chaya: 5 Decades Of Ailey History

Masazumi Chaya starts off an interview in his office on the subject of food, recalling when he used to cook meals for his fellow Company members, including his especially popular chicken with ginger soy sauce. With his warmth, enthusiasm, and easy sense of humor, Chaya (as he is known) seems like an ideal dinner companion. The primary recipe that Chaya has developed is the singular position - Associate Artistic Director - which he has decided to relinquish following this City Center season after nearly 3 decades.

December 10, 2019

Dance Magazine - The Dance Magazine Awards Celebrate Everything We Love About Dance

What a night. The Dance Magazine Awards yesterday at the Ailey Citigroup Theater was jam-packed with love for dance. From legendary icons to early-career choreographers we can't stop obsessing over, the Dance Magazine Awards, presented by the Dance Media Foundation, recognized a wide spectrum of our field. And with more performances than ever before, the night was an incredible celebration of the dance community. As host Wendy Perron pointed out, in many ways, we doubled the usual fun this year: Some honorees had two performances, some had two presenters, and David Gordon and Valda Setterfield were themselves, well, two awardees.

December 06, 2019

Dance Magazine - You Can Now View More Than 10,000 Photos From Jack Mitchell's Alvin Ailey Collection Online

From 1961 to 1994, legendary photographer Jack Mitchell captured thousands of moments with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Now, this treasure trove of dance history is available to the public for viewing via the online archives of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

December 05, 2019

VOGUE - Alvin Ailey's Opening Night Gala Was A Revelation Of Spirit And Soul

“The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater makes us feel...the struggle to be free, the tenacity of the human spirit, the triumph of faith—these are the eternal truths of Alvin Ailey’s enduring Revelations,” said Broadway star Renée Elise Goldsberry, the gala’s honorary chair, as she introduced the dance company’s signature performance. The gala consisted of a two-part evening, celebrating the opening night of the five-week holiday season. It began with a multi-act performance featuring a tributary excerpt by Merce Cunningham, which was followed by the premiere of a new piece by Darrell Grand Moultrie called Ounce of Faith, which felt fresh, optimistic and modern, and, of course, concluded with the dance company’s famous Revelations. Following the show, guests made their way to a benefit dinner, where they were greeted by a 20-plus person band singing renditions of songs by Lizzo, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, and Rihanna—modern anthems of empowerment.

The Ailey Organization