When former South Elgin and Bartlett resident Sarah Daley was growing up, she became an instant fan of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater after seeing the company perform at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.
Why And How To Teach Modern Dance To Young Students
Some 40 students from Stapleton's Dreyfus Intermediate School spent a Thursday afternoon they won't soon forget. New York City's First Lady Chirlane McCray welcomed the 6th, 7th and 8th graders to Gracie Mansion to participate in an Alvin Ailey Dance Workshop exploring Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's signature masterpiece, "Revelations," to celebrate Black History Month.
Our special profile series continued this morning on “Fox and Friends” with a feature on the inspirational dancer and choreographer, Robert Battle.
Robert Battle has been leading the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for four years now. But there are still times the Liberty City-raised artistic director can't quite believe he's heading one of the most famous dance troupes in the world.
It's said that Odetta, American folk singer-songwriter and activist, was so meticulous when researching traditional black prison songs that she once tried to break rocks with a sledgehammer to understand how convicts felt when singing those songs.
Martin Luther King III and Andrea King, along with their daughter, Yolanda, visit with artistic director Robert Battle (and dancers) at the Fox Theatre following a performance of Alvin Ailey’s American masterpiece “Revelations” and the Atlanta premiere of Matthew Rushing’s ODETTA, a tribute to the legendary singer and activist known as the “voice of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient - Robert Battle on Behalf of Alvin Ailey
As only the third artistic director of the famed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since its founding in 1958, Robert Battle carries the weight of history on his shoulders. But Battle, a choreographer and leader of his own rising dance company when he was handpicked to lead Ailey in 2011 by his predecessor Judith Jamison, hardly considers that history a burden.
Denmark-born Peter Brandenhoff's talents have taken him around the world, performing with the Boston Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. An in-demand ballet instructor, he is currently teaching at the Ailey Extension.