As Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates its 65th anniversary year, the organization has embarked on an initiative to honor the legacy of its founder, Alvin Ailey, by providing free educational resources through PBS. This past February, the first installment of a new eight-part documentary series on Ailey’s life and work, titled Portrait of Ailey, […]
The 2023 Dance Teacher Awards will take place on Thursday, August 10 at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in New York City, and you’re invited! Click here to buy tickets. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Ana Marie Forsythe has been teaching for most of her life. Now 79, she first taught dance […]
For the up-and-coming generation, dance history doesn’t always sound like the most exciting course. But for students at The Ailey School, former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer Renee Robinson is bringing enthusiasm to the class by helping her students make personal connections to the past. Robinson’s training began with classical ballet at 9 years […]
Alvin Ailey founded what would become one of the world’s most famous modern dance companies. From its earliest days, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed dances that reflected the African American cultural experience to concert dance audiences. Ailey’s iconic work Revelations continues to resonate over 60 years later. The company has performed for more […]
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 collection includes both color and black-and-white images […]
Here’s some Monday news to rock your soul: An upcoming Fox Searchlight film about the life of Alvin Ailey just got even more enticing—Barry Jenkins, the filmmaker who won an Oscar for Moonlight, has signed on as director. It feels like quite a fitting hire. Back in 2017, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater artistic director […]
What does it mean to be human? Well, many things. But if you were at the Dance Magazine Awards last week, you could argue that to be human is to dance. Speeches about the powerful humanity of our art form were backed up with performances by incredible dancers hailing from everywhere from Hubbard Street Dance […]
As you assemble your gratitude list for this Thanksgiving, stop and consider some of the works that paved the way for the diverse dance world we enjoy today. Whether they introduced a radical new style of movement, controversial subject matter or a particularly poignant message, these five works broke choreographic barriers and have withstood the […]
To celebrate Valentine’s Day in the most dance-centric way possible, we sat down with five powerhouse dance-teaching couples to talk about their love stories. What do they admire about each other? What are their couple goals and their teaching philosophies, and how do they make their relationships work, especially when they work together? Get ready […]
As a young dancer, Alvin Ailey principal Jamar Roberts learned more than just how to pick up choreography quickly from his teacher and mentor Angel Fraser-Logan at the Dance Empire of Miami. In a recent New York Times article, Roberts, says that Fraser-Logan “taught me how to be an artist—the importance of dance being a […]