The amazing Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre is not only starting a four-year residency at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this month but is opening beginning March 20-24, 2024 with two exciting programs blending Ailey classics with three Los Angeles premieres. There will be seven performances.
Celebrating its 65th anniversary the incredible Alvin Ailey dancers will perform two programs both with its signature masterpiece “Revelations.”
The first program includes the premieres of Ode (choreography by former Alvin Ailey dancer Jamar Roberts) and Are You in Your Feelings? (choreography by Kyle Abraham). The all-female performance of Ode honors the fragility and beauty of life and features a jazz score. Are You in Your Feelings? celebrates Black culture, music and youthful spirit with a “mixtape” of soul, hip-hop and R&B.
The second program features CENTURY (choreography by Amy Hall Garner) along with a restaging of Dancing Spirit (choreography by Ronald K. Brown). A deeply personal piece Dancing Spirit is a moving work with evocative choreography set to jazz legends, including Wynton Marsalis and Duke Ellington.
A promise of what’s to come…
The residency will expand on its choreographic tradition by adding new choreographers to the company’s repertoire with world premieres.
To engage and inspire students and educators with dance and movement Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s residency will include a matinee performance for approximately 2,500 middle school and high school students on Friday, March 22.
During the week of March 4 the company has planned to do Ailey Arts in Education & Community Programs and will also visit two middle schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District for a weeklong arts-learning experience entitled “Revelations: An Interdisciplinary Approach”.
The program will entail classroom workshops for students to examine the work and historical impact of Alvin Ailey, a writing project on students’ self-reflection and a discussion on the choreography of Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations. These students will then attend Ailey’s student matinee performance at The Music Center.
Additionally, The Music Center has arranged for Ailey to provide an AileyDance for Active Aging workshop for older adults in partnership with the non-profit organization EngAGE, Inc., at The Piedmont Senior Apartments in North Hollywood.
To purchase tickets go to musiccenter.org or by phone at (213) 972-0711.
PostScript: This is a picture of Alvin Ailey and me in Mayor Tom Bradley’s office for a radio interview l produced with both of them. They met for the first time that day and became good friends. They each came from the same background in Texas and rose to the top of their professions. It was a stirring interview.
