NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Robert Battle, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, about their new all virtual season and how the pandemic has impacted the world of dance.
As if Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater didn't have enough to deal with while creating a high-profile new work during the pandemic, there was the weather. Rain scuttled much of an outdoor shoot for its new dance film, "Testament," — a contemporary response to the company's signature piece, "Revelations."
For Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's first ever virtual season, a dancer and choreographer with a shared experience of partial deafness find a new way to make their artistry even more inclusive. While helping to choreograph a new work, Yusha-Marie Sorzano wondered about including American Sign Language. She found an ally and soloist in Ailey dancer Samantha Figgins.
The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater has become a cultural landmark in the world of dance. For the last six decades, dancers from the iconic company have performed signature masterpieces all over the globe. Now as we celebrate the holidays during these unprecedented times, the theater debuts its first virtual engagement to honor one of its classic ballets called Revelations.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle joins "GMA" live to share a sneak peak of the Company’s groundbreaking new season, titled "Ailey Forward."
For 17 years, New York City Center’s annual Fall for Dance festival has relied on a winning formula. Naturally, this year is somewhat different. Still, it was the new pieces that dazzled. Jamar Roberts, the resident choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, presented a solo, “Morani/Mungu (Black Warrior/Black God).” A big, beautiful dancer, Mr. Roberts has no trouble impersonating a god, powerful enough for battle yet benevolent. But the dance also reveals his rarer gifts of subtlety and singular musicality.
Join us for a conversation with living legend, Judith Jamison. Ms. Jamison is the Artistic Director Emerita for Alvin Ailey.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is the latest company to move ahead with new work while performing arts spaces remain almost completely shut down in New York. The troupe's monthlong December season will include a world premiere from Jamar Roberts, Ailey's choreographer in residence, and the debut of a collaborative response to Alvin Ailey's "Revelations" by Matthew Rushing, Clifton Brown and Yusha-Marie Sorzano.
A celebration of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and its educational mission, featuring dancer Solomon Dumas.
Thousands of creative artists are fighting for their survival as the entertainment industry remains mostly shut down, but new ways of working are starting to pop up, along with a stronger push for federal relief. A New York City rooftop becomes a stage. No curtain rises, but the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns for a season that debuts new works and reinvents classics like “Pas de Duke,” as in Duke Ellington, by putting them online. The videos were filmed atop landmarks, like the Woolworth Building.