| Ailey’s Holiday Season Continues with Live Music Performances of Ailey’s Original Masterpiece
Blues Suite Beginning Wednesday, December 16th |
||
|
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s holiday season at New York City Center continues this week with the return of Alvin Ailey’s original masterpiece Blues Suite on Wednesday, December 16th. This new production of the work that launched the Company during its first performance in 1958 will give a new generation of stunning Ailey dancers the opportunity to dazzle audiences in the work that forever changed the perception of American dance. Kenny Brawner and The Brawner Brothers Band will join the cast of vividly-drawn characters onstage, playing live music throughout the piece, which takes place during one sultry, Southern night. Blues Suite returns three more times this season: Dec 16, 19, and 31 (Judith Jamison 50th Anniversary New Year’s Eve Celebration).
Other highlights this week include “Ailey Visionaries” programs featuring works by the Company’s three Artistic Directors – Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, and Robert Battle (Dec 15, 20 mat, and 29), “All Ailey” programs comprised entirely of works choreographed by the Company’s legendary founder, including the celebrated Cry solo originally danced by Judith Jamison (Dec 16, 19 mat, 20 eve), and “All New” programs featuring all of the season’s premieres (Dec 17, 19 eve, 22, 26 eve, and Jan 2 eve).
After the New York City Center engagement concludes on January 3rd, Ailey will perform in 20 cities across North America beginning in February. For more information, visit www.alvinailey.org.
|
||
| UPCOMING PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS:
BLUES SUITE – NEW PRODUCTION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16TH “Blood memories” of rural, Depression-era southern Texas, come to life in Blues Suite, Alvin Ailey’s hugely popular ballet that launched Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at its first performance 57 years ago. With the rumble of a train and the toll of distant bells, a cast of vividly-drawn characters from the barrelhouses and fields of Alvin Ailey’s southern childhood are summoned to dance and revel through one long, sultry night. Last re-staged for the Company’s 50th anniversary 2008-2009 season, Ailey’s first masterpiece poignantly evokes the sorrow, humor, and humanity of the blues, those heartfelt songs that he called “hymns to the secular regions of the soul.” All performances of Blues Suite during the Company’s 2015 – 2016 New York City Center will be danced to live music performed by Kenny Brawner and The Brawner Brothers Band.
Performance Dates: Dec 16, 19 mat, 20 eve, 31 |
||
|
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
“AILEY VISIONARIES” Works by the Company’s three Artistic Directors will be presented during this special program: Robert Battle’s No Longer Silent, Judith Jamison’s A Case of You, and Alvin Ailey’s Night Creature and must-see masterpiece Revelations.
Performance Dates: Dec 15, 20 mat, 29
“ALL AILEY” This program is comprised entirely of works by the Company’s legendary founder, including Blues Suite, Night Creature (Dec 16 and 19 mat only), Cry, and Love Songs (Dec 20 eve only).
Performance Dates: Dec 16, 19 mat, 20 eve |
||
| “ALL NEW”
This special program will feature the extraordinary Ailey dancers performing in the three world premieres – Robert Battle’s Awakening, Ronald K. Brown’s Open Door, and Kyle Abraham’s Untitled America: First Movement – in addition to the Company premiere of Paul Taylor’s Piazzolla Caldera.
Performance Dates: Dec 17, 19 eve, 22, 26 eve, Jan 2 eve
JUDITH JAMISON 50TH ANNIVERSARY NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION On New Year’s Eve, Ailey salutes Artistic Director Emerita and Ailey’s muse Judith Jamison on 50 years with the Company. The evening will feature a performance of Jamison’s A Case of You duet (featuring a one-night-only return by beloved former Ailey dancer Clifton Brown), along with Alvin Ailey’s Blues Suite performed with live music, the timeless Revelations, and the legendary Cry solo she unforgettably originated.
|
||
