As a Black girl from the inner city of Baltimore, I hadn’t known anything about the codified world of dance growing up. Ballet was something I had only seen on TV—and who I saw in it never looked like me. I never thought that would be my future. My first introduction to dance was at my audition for the Baltimore School for the Arts, and from there a love bloomed.
Pittsburgh native James Gilmer always had a love for the arts. Growing up in a family that was musically and artistically inclined sparked an interest in dance at an early age. His parents began cultivating his love for dance by putting him in a ballet and tap sampler class at the Larry Cervi School of dance when he was just five years old. Gilmer went on to receive a scholarship to attend the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School when he was 8 years old. After graduating high school, he was accepted into the second company at the Cincinnati Ballet and joined the main company shortly thereafter. Eventually he went on to dance with ODC Dance Company in San Francisco before landing his dream job in New York. In 2019, Gilmer became a member of the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Gilmer spoke with the SUN about his journey in the world of dance, his dream job with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s upcoming performance at the Kimmel Center Cultural Campus.
When he became the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 10 years ago, Robert Battle stopped seeing himself as a choreographer. “In fact,” he said in a recent phone interview, “there were parts of me that didn’t really think I would make another work.” Paradoxically, making work is precisely why Battle had landed at Ailey in the first place in 2011. It was his skill as a choreographer and director of his own small troupe, Battleworks Dance Company, that caught the attention of one of the world’s most prestigious modern-dance organizations. Judith Jamison, Battle’s champion and predecessor at Ailey, hailed him as “the creative force of the future.”
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater member Courtney Celeste Spears corresponded with Ballerina Book Club for “Friend Picks” about her favorite books, how reading informs character development, dancing at Ailey and her Bahamas-based organization ArtSea, which she started to share her love of dance and give back to the local community. Follow her on Instagram at bahamaballerina.
This month would have been Alvin Ailey’s 91st birthday; the celebrated modern dance visionary died in 1989. Decades later, his choreography is as vibrant as ever and his company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater remains as innovative. Christopher Booker spoke with the company’s artistic director Robert Battle about Ailey’s legacy.
Artistic Director Emerita, Judith Jamison sits with Tamron Hall to discuss the AILEY Documentary, the 50th anniversary of Alvin Ailey’s beloved Cry, and the highly anticipated 2022 US Tour, kicking off Philadelphia.
After two decades, the acclaimed dancer has retired from the company where he made a huge splash in contemporary dance—but, as he explains to Vanity Fair, this is just the beginning. On a Monday afternoon in late November, Jamar Roberts, a longtime star of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, was standing in a studio at the company’s expansive, glass-walled school in midtown Manhattan. But instead of joining the group of barefoot and masked dancers as they rehearsed his piece “Holding Space,” Roberts wore cargo pants and kept on pair of black-and-white polka dot Converse. In August, the 39-year-old dancer announced his retirement from the company he’d been a part of since 2002. Now, he watched the rehearsal as choreographer.
What’s next? Our annual list of dancers, choreographers and companies on the verge of breaking through offers several answers to the question of where our field is headed. We’re betting we’ll be seeing—and hearing—more from these 25 artists not just this year, but for many more to come... 23-year-old Ashley Green picked up a 2021 Princess Grace Award last summer, and shortly thereafter moved across the country to join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Our editor attended Ailey’s Opening Night Gala in NYC and This is a personal account about her experience: The night of the Alvin Ailey Opening Night Gala was not only a beautiful piece of nostalgia following their return to the stage after two years, but a reminder that COVID had completely ripped me from my sense of personal style. Though the invitation clearly read “gala,” I found myself consistently second, third, and fourth guessing my choices of outfits, fragrance, lip color, and shoes. Anyone who knows me personally can attest to the fact that casualwear is my best friend – mom jeans, an oversized tee and some kicks are typically my way to go. But don’t let the clean Air Forces fool you; I can put a piece together in a hot second.
The problem with being Alvin Ailey was being Alvin Ailey. “Sometimes your name becomes bigger than yourself,” says the dancer-choreographer Carmen de Lavallade of her late friend and colleague. “Alvin Ailey: Do you really know who that is, or what that is?” Jamila Wignot’s moving and poetic documentary portrait, “Ailey,” provides answers, while making clear that its subject had the same questions