another changing of the guard is taking place at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Sylvia Waters, the longtime artistic director of Ailey II, will retire on June 30, the company plans to announce Thursday.
WBGO's Doug Doyle features AileyCamp Newark's final performance.
When Nehprii Amenii of Brooklyn walked into Newark Arts High School for the first time this summer, she was prepared to be hit with what she called "full cannons of attitude." Since then, she has been spending weekdays teaching creative communication to 11 to 14 year-olds as part of AileyCamp, a full-day summer program offered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and financed, in Newark, entirely by the Prudential Foundation.
The Prudential Foundation is funding Newark's first AileyCamp, a summer camp that embodies Prudential's belief in arts education as a means of revitalizing struggling communities while educating the future work force.
Who's who when it comes to the most important private funders of New York City's unparalleled cultural offerings? The list would be long. But it would have to include these power patrons of the arts.
For 15-year-old Mikayla Lambert this summer hasn't been what most girls her age would consider awesome. Instead of sleeping late, she wakes up each morning at 8:30.
Dance teacher Wayne Williams stood at the lip of the Newark Arts High stage, his back to the two dozen black-clad students lined up behind him. "Where are your hands?" he asked over his shoulder. "Out" they shouted. "Chin?" he called. "Up," they said. "Stomach?" "In," they replied a few giggles distupting their perfect unison.
When a school is a training ground for a company, its performances offer an interesting opportunity to see the way technique and performance styles are forged. On Wednesday night the Alvin AIley School presented its Spring Celebration Concert at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, and the senior students who too pride of place were remarkable for the ardent sincerity of their demeanor as well as the excellence of their dancing.
Sylvia Waters is the Artistic Director for Ailey II, the junior company of the renown Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which she has led since its inception in 1974. Waters was hand-picked by Alvin Ailey to lead the new venture and under her direction Ailey II has grown into a powerful company in its own right.
The air was filled with anticipation last Saturday afternoon as the near-capacity audience filed into the Academy of Music for the first of three weekend performances by the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.