Alberta Ballet has worked hard for a very long time to bring Ailey II, the young company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, to Alberta for good reason. This is a had-working fun-to-watch group of budding athletic dance artists comprising some of the company's most promising scholarship students, and they thrilled their audience Thursday night at the Southern Alberta Jubilee.
Great works of dance are not easily preserved for future generations to enjoy. Moving bodies are simply not meant to be fixed to museum walls. Instead, imagine dance pieces like precious, perishable heirlooms that must be handed down and resurrected by performance.
MTV has launched a new interactive, anti-slavery campaign inspired by a winning entry in its "Against Our Will" project on the college network, mtvU.
The audience will see a diverse production when Ailey II, the renowned touring company of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater family, kicks off the Park City Performing Arts Foundation's 2012-13 season on Friday, Novemeber 2.
The Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey presented Ailey II for a series of performances at the Folly Theater. Thursday's performance featured two premieres, kick starting the series.
"I feel like I'm leaving my child!" calls out Dwana Smalwood, as the studio door clicks shut behind her. She feigns a weeping expression - wide eyes glancing backward, lithe arms gesturing loningly - then lets out a self-effacing laugh, knowing she'll be back right after lunch.
At the opening night of Ailey II's New York season in April, the last under Sylvia Waters' direction, the house was full of tears, cheers, and - before any dancing had even occured - a standing ovation.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from a now-fabled performance in March 1958, at the 92nd Street Y in NEw York City. Led by Alvin AIley and a group of young African-American modern Dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance.
The members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater are adept in what might be termed "extreme dancing" - the jumps seem trampoline-enhanced, the splits are frequently beyond a hundred and eighty degrees, and the drama is off the charts.
Somewhere near the top of the modern-dance family tree, where the foliage is plentiful, you'll find Sylvia Waters. This season after 38 years on the job, Ms. Waters will step down as artistic director of Ailey II, the second company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where her main triumph has been to cultivate dancers and nurture their inner stars.