For 47 years, Masazumi Chaya has overseen Alvin Ailey's dancers - and now he's ready to move on. Masazumi Chaya, a doctor and nurse's son from Japan, expected to go to medical school. But at 17, he took a jazz-dance class and started performing on TV shows there. By 21, he wondered just how good a dancer he really was. He wanted to test himself - so he went to New York.
Say you're a choreographer and you want to make a dance about gun violence - not a polemical piece but a mournful one. How might you express a grief that's personal and public, and whose source shows no sign of stopping? An obvious option: bodies on the ground. And sure enough, those appear in Jamar Roberts's "Ode," which had its premiere at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at City Center on Tuesday. "Ode" isn't obvious though. It's delicate, daring and heartbreaking.
Masazumi Chaya starts off an interview in his office on the subject of food, recalling when he used to cook meals for his fellow Company members, including his especially popular chicken with ginger soy sauce. With his warmth, enthusiasm, and easy sense of humor, Chaya (as he is known) seems like an ideal dinner companion. The primary recipe that Chaya has developed is the singular position - Associate Artistic Director - which he has decided to relinquish following this City Center season after nearly 3 decades.
There are no gunshots in Ode. But it does begin with one dancer lying motionless on the floor, as a piano plays stark, detached chords. The dancer gets up and is eventually joined by five other dancers, in flowing, circular motions. They dance together as an ensemble, but then one dancer falls and crumples to the floor. He's picked up by another dancer, but then two of them fall.
What a night. The Dance Magazine Awards yesterday at the Ailey Citigroup Theater was jam-packed with love for dance. From legendary icons to early-career choreographers we can't stop obsessing over, the Dance Magazine Awards, presented by the Dance Media Foundation, recognized a wide spectrum of our field. And with more performances than ever before, the night was an incredible celebration of the dance community. As host Wendy Perron pointed out, in many ways, we doubled the usual fun this year: Some honorees had two performances, some had two presenters, and David Gordon and Valda Setterfield were themselves, well, two awardees.
It’s Morning Edition on WNYC. I'm Richard Hake. A new work of dance premiering tonight draws from the story of a racist mob attack in Oklahoma back in 1921. Greenwood will be performed by the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. It explores the story of a massacre in the affluent black Greenwood district of Tulsa, known at the time as America's black Wall Street. Donald Byrd is the choreographer who created the piece. And it's our pleasure that he's with us this morning in the studio, Mr. Bird. Good morning.
From 1961 to 1994, legendary photographer Jack Mitchell captured thousands of moments with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Now, this treasure trove of dance history is available to the public for viewing via the online archives of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater makes us feel...the struggle to be free, the tenacity of the human spirit, the triumph of faith—these are the eternal truths of Alvin Ailey’s enduring Revelations,” said Broadway star Renée Elise Goldsberry, the gala’s honorary chair, as she introduced the dance company’s signature performance. The gala consisted of a two-part evening, celebrating the opening night of the five-week holiday season. It began with a multi-act performance featuring a tributary excerpt by Merce Cunningham, which was followed by the premiere of a new piece by Darrell Grand Moultrie called Ounce of Faith, which felt fresh, optimistic and modern, and, of course, concluded with the dance company’s famous Revelations. Following the show, guests made their way to a benefit dinner, where they were greeted by a 20-plus person band singing renditions of songs by Lizzo, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, and Rihanna—modern anthems of empowerment.
On December 4, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opened its holiday season at New York City Center with a gala benefit performance and party. The evening was chaired by Emily and Len Blavatnik, Paulette Mullings Bradnock and Howard Bradnock, Mellody Hobson and George Lucas, Daria and Eric Wallach, and Joan and Sandy Weill, and honored the contributions of Elaine Wynn and The Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation to Ailey and its mission.
One of the world’s most popular dance companies, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater are out with their annual showcase, “Ailey Revealed.” Watch three members of the company give a live studio performance of a portion of Ailey’s signature piece, “Revelations.”