Joan H. Weill is going out with a bang. After her 14 years as chairwoman of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and 20 years on its board, the company on Thursday evening planned to announce that more than $40 million had been raised in honor of her retirement.
Alvin Ailey, the revelatory dancer and choreographer who began life in Rogers, Texas, and died in Manhattan in 1989 at the age of 58, has been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
Learn the opening section of Alvin Ailey's iconic work.
On paper, there are a number of reasons why Alicia Graf Mack shouldn't be a successful dancer. She's 6-foot-2 on her tiptoes, making it harder to find male partners tall enough for her. She's biracial, growing up in a time when African-American ballerinas are few. And she's suffered multiple injuries of the career ending variety.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, long one of the nation's more cherished troupes, is testing the waters of its Chicago popularity with an extended, two-week stay at the Auditorium Theatre, offering three separate linups through March 17.
There's a cool, seductive way an Alvin Ailey dancer takes the stage - a pantherlike walk with the chest held high, hips and shoulders rolling ever so slightly. It's one of the things choreographer Kyle Abraham loves about Ailey's style.
A conversation with Judith Jamison, director emerita of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and winner of the 2013 APAP Award of Merit, is not like taking a walk through American dance history. It is the walk through American dance History.
Even if you haven't been to an Alvin Ailey performance, chances are you've seen Alicia Graf Mack: Her photos, with one leg reaaching skyward, is plastered on posters all over the city.
Variety is the spice of Ailey. As artistic director Robert Battle winds up his second season, he continues to broaden the repertory - making for programming where the choroegraphy is (almost) as good as the dancing.
Last Saturday, I saw a stunning Alvin Ailey evening of pieces like "Streams," "The Evolution Of A Secured Feminine," and "Urban Folk Dance." The night ended with "Minus 16," a jagged, exciting ensemble piece, performed in business suits and hats, with choreography by Ohad Naharin.