Remember the first half of Footloose? Where dance isn't allowed and no one does it? That's where I live. I don't want to dance with somebody and my hips do, in fact, lie. That being said, this month someone hit fast forward on my movie and I found myself at the warehouse dance party aka Ailey Dance Extension. With more than 90 weekly classes, I was quite overwhelmed with my choices. I started with salsa.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Rehearsal Director and Guest Artist Matthew Rushing discusses his ties to the Los Angeles area, how he started dancing and the programming for Ailey’s engagement at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion April 3-7.
There were not one, but two anniversaries to toast when the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater sashayed into the District. Case in point: The 20th annual DC opening night gala also celebrated the company's diamond jubilee. And what a soiree it was.
Afro Flow Yoga is a body-and-soul awakening. Created by dancer-yogini Leslie Salmon-Jones and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Jones, the dance form melds yoga with West African diasporic dance.
On Saturday evening (March 23), the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will dance a dance about circles. It's a dance about time, and evolution, and what changes and, of course, what stays the same. It's about destiny and journeys and how fate makes all of those things flop on top of each other in a precise but messy Venn diagram. As the lead dancer in "EN," New Orleans-born Michael Jackson, Jr. will be performing right in the center.
After dance pioneer Alvin Ailey died in 1989, the future of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was uncertain. It's difficult to keep a dance company profitable after its founder is long gone - many have tried and failed. But 30 years later, the group is thriving, and decided to celebrate its 60th anniversary and founder by commissioning a new work titled Lazarus.
Danica Paulos, who's now in her fifth season with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, moves with captivating grace and power onstage. And when she's not wowing in-person audiences, the multitalented artist is mesmerizing Ailey's online followers: A gifted photographer, she regularly posts beautiful images of her coworkers to the @alvinailey Instagram page, which she's run for the past two years. We caught up with Paulos to talk about her diverse interests— and find out how she's helped shape AAADT's digital presence.
Miami-raised and Fordham-educated, Ally Love is the in-area host of the Brooklyn Nets, an Adidas global ambassador, a Peloton instructor, an Alvin Ailey-trained dancer, a certified health coach and the founder of Love Squad, a company that empowers young women through panel discussions and group workouts.
Philadelphia choreographer Rennie Harris was given an enormous assignment when he was asked to make a piece honoring Alvin Ailey (the man) for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's 60th anniversary. But what Harris made was a masterpiece. Lazarus had its Philadelphia premiere Thursday night at the Academy of Music.
Choreographer Rennie Harris, international pioneer of street dance theater, isn't big on accepting praise. He might have to learn. Harris' latest work, Lazarus, his fourth and most recent commission for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has elicited unprecedented adulation from eminent dance critics. The piece commemorates the Alvin Ailey troupe's 60 years. It makes its Philadelphia debut Friday night and Saturday afternoon at the Academy of Music, along with Ailey's iconic Revelations.