Spotlight on... Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

“Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.” The ethos of the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey lives on today in the company he formed, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which performs to hundreds of thousands of people each year throughout the United States and around the world. Now under the artistic direction of Robert Battle – only the third person to hold the role after Judith Jamison and Ailey himself – the company holds audiences spellbound with its powerful and deeply felt repertoire, rooted in the African American experience.

During the coming season, Ailey celebrates its 60th anniversary; a milestone that will be marked by a series of special events and new ballet commissions, as well as extensive national and international touring. In addition to the long-established Ailey School and junior company, Ailey II, the organisation also continues to grow its education and outreach activities, and increasingly takes such programmes overseas to add an extra dimension to guest engagements. On a recent tour to South Africa, for example, the Ailey dancers participated in over 60 workshops and school visits, bringing Alvin Ailey’s inclusive message into some of the nation’s poorest township areas.

Askonas Holt’s working relationship with Ailey goes back a mere ten years, but has seen the company visit cities as diverse as Moscow, Edinburgh and Rio de Janeiro. In October 2018, the company adds Dubai to its touring schedule, marking its first visit to the United Arab Emirates. And as always they will bring with them Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations, a work which shines across the decades with undimmed power. “People come expecting it”, said Robert Battle in a recent interview for The Guardian, “particularly parents who see it as a rite of passage for their children. Young people today may not all go to church or know spirituals, but there is such a distillation of mood and message in Revelations that it cuts through age, colour, economics, all that stuff. The kids see it and something happens. There is something vital in this work, and as long as audiences still need it, we’ll do it.”

Alvin Ailey’s Linda Celeste Sims © Andrew Eccles