Courtney Celeste Spears stepped out of the Fordham classroom this fall and onto a world stage as a member of Ailey II, the highly selective junior company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Spears, a senior in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in dance at Lincoln Center, recently completed her final Fordham class toward a minor in communications and media studies.
Hot on the heels of Phildanco's performance last month at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, the venue opens its doors to another dance force not seen here in several years. Tonight, the Pittsburgh Dance Council will present Ailey II, the junior company of New York City's prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Young dancers are carrying forward the legacy of iconic American choreographer Alvin Ailey, who died in 1989. He founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 and, two years later, created his most celebrated work — “Revelations,” an exploration of the grief and “holiest joy” of the African-American experience performed to spirituals, gospel and holy blues.
Courtney Celeste Spears - Audra Danielle Noyes is a young designer, having made her way nearly straight from her studies at Savannah College of Art and Design to Paris, where she cut her teeth at Lanvin and John Galliano. And so her Spring précis was one no doubt informed by her own experiences, which delved deeply into the metamorphosis of a young woman.
She started dancing at the age of three and that was only because her mother went to a Target store and picked out a ballet outfit just to see how her toddler would look in it. For Courtney Celeste Spears, it's like she never took off the leotard.
Courtney Celeste Spears - Every year, the Princess Grace Foundation honors a few lucky members of the arts community. Getting a Princess Grace Award (which comes with a generous grant) is like joining one of the most elite clubs around—a club that includes David Hallberg, Tiler Peck, Mike Minery, Gillian Murphy, Kyle Abraham, Drew Jacoby and Isabella Bolyston.
With only two weeks left in The Ailey School's Summer Intensive Program, Gabriel Hyman collided with his partner during a rehearsal for the final performance and suffered a calf-muscle tear. "I was told that a recovery would take at least two weeks," said Hyman, who's currently an Ailey II apprentice and a junior in the Ailey/Fordham University BFA program.
It all started when she was just 3 years old. Courtney Spears’ mother, D’Andrea Sweeting Spears, purchased her first leotard, tights and ballet slippers, and from then on Courtney never turned back.
Venturing south from its home on West 55th Street, this hardworking ensemble, the second company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, presents its first independent season at the Joyce Theater.
Chalvar Monteiro took a drama elective at Renaissance Middle School which met outside the studios of Sharron Miller's Academy for the Performing Arts. Miller spotted his talent for moving, called his mother, and offered the boy a scholarship.