Pas de Duke

Alvin Ailey’s modern dance interpretation of a classical pas de deux feels as fresh and stylish as it did when it premiered 50 years ago. The choreography is elegant and deliciously flirtatious, capturing the sassy sophistication of Duke Ellington’s jazz music and accentuating the dancers’ exuberant virtuosity as they engage in a playful game of one-upmanship.

Pas de Duke was originally created in 1976 as a showcase for Judith Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She was a reigning star of modern dance, and he was one of the world’s most famous ballet dancers, having defected from the Soviet Union two years earlier. Mr. Ailey made brilliant use of the dancers’ physical and stylistic differences, along with America’s two great art forms – modern dance and jazz music. Since then, it has been performed by generations of dancers who have each put their own unique twist on the choreography. The New York Times has praised it as “one of those special dances that lives in new ways with each new set of performers.