Dancer, actor and choreographer Carmen DeLavallade performs The Creation featuring choreography by her husband Geoffrey Holder. Holder also designed the costume and music.
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Category: Dance Theatre
12/26/25 O&A NYC DANCE BY WALTER RUTLEDGE: Cry – Deborah Manning
In 1971, Alvin Ailey created Cry, one of his signature dance works, as a birthday present for his mother Lula Elizabeth Ailey. Ailey dedicated the ballet to “all black women everywhere — especially our mothers.” The three-part ballet, set to contemporary music by Alice Coltrane, Laura Nyro and Chuck Griffin, depicts a woman’s journey through toil to an ecstatic state of grace. Cry premiered at New York City Center on May 4, 1971. Continue reading
12/24/25 O&A NYC BLACK FACTS: Judith Jamison – Sunday Morning CBS – AAADT at 60 (2019)
In this CBS Sunday Morning report that originally aired August 11, 2019, on the occasion of the dance group’s 60th anniversary, correspondent Rita Braver talked with dance icon and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Judith Jamison and her succeeding artistic director Robert Battle.
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12/18/25 O&A NYC DANCE: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Perform On Tamron Hall Show
Artistic Director Alicia Mack introduces the Wade In The Water section of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. Kudos to Solomon Dumas, Hannah Alissa Richardson and Isabel Wallace-Green. Continue reading
12/14/25 O&A NYC THE WORD: Revelations – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Revelations was the tenth ballet by 29 year old emerging choreographer Alvin Ailey. The work premiered in New York City on January 31, 1960, at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA. Revelations immediately captivated audiences with its powerful universal message of faith and resilience.
12/12/25 O&A NYC DANCE BY WALTER RUTLEDGE: Dudley Williams -A Song for You
By Walter Rutledge
Nineteen seventy began the golden age of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Ailey in his creative apex choreographed Streams (1970) (his first plotless work), Cry (1971) (iconic female solo and Judith Jamison’s breakout role), The Lark Ascending (1972) his historic collaborations with Duke Ellington (Ailey Does Ellington -1974 season in Lincoln Center) and Memoria (1979). In 1972 Dudley Williams premiered Love Songs, a solo choreographed in three sections by Ailey.
The choreography received lukewarm reviews and was categorized as the male counter part of Cry, which had premiered a year earlier. New York Times dance critic Anna Kisslegoff called the work a “technical and dramatic tour-de-force for Mr. Williams”. The literati may not have been initially enthusiastic, but the audience had a different reaction. They showered Williams’ performance with thunderous applause, establishing him as Ailey’s lyric crown prince and Love Songs as his signature role.
Dudley Williams -A Song for You (1986)
Dudley shared with me in a 2010 interview that Judith Jamison introduced him to the Donny Hathaway music and he then shared it with Ailey. One day Ailey called him into the studio and said, “This is for you Chicken”, (Ailey’s pet name for Williams) and began to choreographer the opening movement A Song For You. The work provided Williams, at the peak of his artistic prowess, a vehicle to showcase his impeccable musical phrasing and stage presence.
The opening section, A Song For You, is often presented as a stand-alone solo. Its lyricism, musicality, and soul stirring dramatic commitment continues to inspire audiences. On December 7th Renaldo Maurice performed A Song For You with great sensitivity and a masterful yet quiet command. The program note read: “This performance is dedicated in loving memory to long-time Ailey Company member Dudley Williams (1938–2015)”. It’s hard to believe Dudley has been dancing with the ancestors for over ten years.
Tonight’s performance is a tribute to choreographer and company founder Alvin Ailey and his muse Judith Jamison. Jamison’s A Case of You will be presented along with two of Ailey’s golden age gems, Memoria and Cry along with his signature masterwork Revelations.
For more information and to purchase tickets visit: https://ailey.org/performances
In Photo: 1. Ailey and Company (1978 twentieth anniversary season) 2. Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison
Jack Mitchell Photographer
11/29/25 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT: The Nutcracker Rudolf Nureyev and Merle Park (1968)
Rudolf Nureyev‘s 1968 staging of the Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden fundamentally altered the perception of The Nutcracker. Nureyev discarded the simplistic notion of a pure children’s fantasy, instead turning the entire dream sequence into a complex psycho-sexual exploration of Clara’s burgeoning maturity and her subconscious desire for her godfather, Drosselmeyer. Continue reading
11/28/25 O&A NYC DANCE REVIEW BY WALTER RUTLEDGE: Robert Battle’s Under the Rhythm – Paul Taylor Dance Company
By Walter Rutledge
When Robert Battle discussed Under the Rhythm prior to the Paul Taylor Dance Company New York season the poignant story of his upbringing was inspiring. Dessie Williams, his mother by choice, introduced him to the arts and encouraged his terpsichorean journey. The nonagenarian still plays the piano at the same church little Robert attended. Continue reading
11/22/25 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT: Radio City Music Hall – Christmas Spectacular
If you live in New York City one spectacular way of starting the Christmas Holiday Season is to go Rockefeller Center, and see the Radio City Music Hall‘s Christmas Spectacular Show featuring the Radio City Rockettes. Continue reading
