Everyone expects professional dancers to be in great shape. But a company like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, with an annual five-week season in New York, 150 days a year on tour and over 200 performances annually, requires Herculean physical strength and extraordinary mental clarity. Each Ailey dancer develops a personalized regimen to sustain their energy and ward off injuries, all while maintaining some semblance of "normal" life.
When awarding a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to choreographer Alvin Ailey, President Barack Obama said, "Through him, African American history was told in a way that it had never been before - with passionate, virtuoso dance performances that transfixed audiences worldwide."
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater honored Joan Weill at its opening gala.
Alicia Graf Mack became a professional ballerina at 17, had her face on the front of the Kennedy Center by 19, and thought her career was over at 21. She shares her story of bouncing back from catastrophic injury, living with arthritis as a dancer, and relentlessly following her dreams.
Danica Paulos: Of the many terrific dancers in Ailey II, only a small fraction graduate to the senior ranks of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It was no surprise when Danica Paulos was among the chosen few last spring.
Alvin Ailey's Artistic Director Robert Battle talks about staging the dance company’s new season, 25 years after its founder’s passing. He is only the third person to head the Company since it was founded in 1958.
The male dancers at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater are hardly asthmatic or middle-aged, but this past week, in a New York crowded with street protests, they only had to be tall and black to make audiences think of Eric Garner.
WHEN I graduated from Juilliard in 1994, I joined a dance touring company and started flying a lot. Since I never flew a lot before, it was really exciting to me. Now, as artistic director for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, I’m flying so much it’s tough to keep track of all the places we go.
A civil rights icon is now dancing onstage in New York City: Odetta. As part of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's New York City Center residency, the African-American musician and activist, who notably sang at the historic 1963 March on Washington, is portrayed onstage in a new work called Odetta, choreographed by Matthew Rushing.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's new season with Artistic Director Robert Battle and choreographer Matthew Rushing.