Alvin Ailey died 21 years ago, on Dec. 1, the very date that his namesake company opened its annual season at City Center this year. He would surely have been astounded and delighted to see the by-now ritualized Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opening night: the red carpet, the photographers, the stars, the speeches, the money.
Michelle Obama has often joked that she, President Obama, and their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, "live above the store." But one could also compare the White House to a beehive where, upon Mrs. Obama's encouragement, young creative talents are invited to cross-pollinate on the East Room stage.
"We could hear you, a little bit, upstairs," Michelle Obama said, one day last month, to the eighty children pulling down their leotard elastics over their small rear ends in the East Room of the White House. When she walked onstage, what looked like eighty children took pictures of her with their cell phones.
Sure enough, someone hit the chandelier. You want to avoid it when you're dancing in the East Room of the White House, but as the many dancers who have had the distinction of leaping and spinning there can attest, it can take tricky choreography to ensure that airborne bodies don't graze the low-hanging crystal.
Judith Jamison’s home is on the stage. It is there where she has captured the hearts of audiences around the world and astonished them with her beauty and grace.
In a special ceremony tonight at The Kennedy Center, Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, will donate her costume from the 1975 ballet, The Mooche, to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) City Center season, which runs from December 2 to January 3, is hot, hot, hot.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opened its season with a gala at the New York City Center, followed by a dinner for 1,200 guests at the Hilton.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Opening Night Gala 2009 was fun. Honorary Chairs and Honored Guests were Pauletta and Denzel Washington.
Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater School, Denise Jefferson and Dr. Jill Biden watch dancers rehearse at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Joan Weill Center for Dance on October 19, 2009 in New York City.