Ode | Ailey Pressroom

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Jamar Roberts' Ode

Former Ailey dancer Jamar Roberts offers a meditation on the beauty and fragility of life in a time of growing gun violence. This tender, engrossing work will be staged with an all-female cast and features a jazz score—Don Pullen’s “Suite (Sweet) Malcolm (Part 1 Memories and Gunshots)”—and Roberts’s own costume designs. Ode was the first in a series of three works that Roberts created during his role as Ailey's first Resident Choreographer.

Ode Info Sheet

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Featured News Releases

January 30, 2020

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's "AILEY REVEALED" 2020 United States Tour Kicks Off During Black History Month And Reaches 21 Cities From February 4 - May 10

New York, NY – January 30, 2020 – Following five-weeks of exceptional performances in New York City, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will continue its “Ailey Revealed” season during a 21-city North American tour which kicks off during Black History Month. The 2020 engagement opens on February 4th at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with a gala to benefit Ailey's D.C. programs, including the creation of new works, Arts-In-Education activities, and scholarships to talented young area dancers to attend The Ailey School in New York. Other major cities throughout the tour include Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Seattle, Houston, and Boston, culminating with a Mother’s Day performance in Newark on May 10th.

January 10, 2020

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Returns To Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre From February 20-23 With "AILEY REVEALED" Season Performances As Part Of 2020 United States Tour To 21 Cities

ATLANTA – UPDATED February 18, 2020 – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, beloved as one of the world’s most popular dance companies, returns to the Fabulous Fox Theatre from February 20 – 23 for six dynamic performances featuring three separate programs that bring the “Ailey Revealed” 2020 season to Atlanta and 21 cities across the United States. Led by Artistic Director Robert Battle, Ailey’s 32 extraordinary dancers will bring to life two topical world premieres that shine a spotlight on social issues – celebrated choreographer Donald Byrd’s Greenwood and Ailey Dancer and Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts’ Ode. Company premieres and new productions will be presented by preeminent choreographers Aszure Barton, Camille A. Brown, Judith Jamison and Darrell Moultrie. Alvin Ailey’s must-see American masterpiece Revelations will culminate each program.

November 01, 2019

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Returns To Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre February 20-23, 2020 With "AILEY REVEALED" As Part Of 21-City North American Tour

ATLANTA – November 1, 2019 – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, beloved as one of the world’s most popular dance companies, announces a return to the Fabulous Fox Theatre, February 20 – 23 as part of a 21-city North American tour, for their highly anticipated 2020 Atlanta engagement with six inspiring performances showcasing Ailey’s 32 extraordinary dancers. Led by Artistic Director Robert Battle, Atlantans will be mesmerized and moved with diverse works by preeminent choreographers, including world premieres that shine a spotlight on social issues by celebrated choreographer Donald Byrd and Ailey dancer and first-ever Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts. Full programming and details will be announced in January 2020.

Featured Press Coverage

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June 22, 2020

The New Yorker - Solo Acts

...At the end of May, in a commission from the Guggenheim’s “Works & Process” series, Jamar Roberts produced an extraordinary five-minute dance titled “Cooped.” He choreographed, designed, directed, performed, and shot (on an iPad) this “fever dream,” alone, in a basement, surrounded by shadows that seem to close in on him—an effect ingeniously created by a floor lamp and a flashlight. The tense music was composed, arranged, and performed (remotely) by David Watson (bagpipes) and Tony Buck (drums).

ChicagoTribune_AAADT_ChicagoIL_BUSKOdeRevelations_Review_Print_3.6.20

March 06, 2020

Chicago Tribune - Storied Company Stays Vital While Not Forgetting Its Past

Ailey has rightly earned its stripes as one of the nation's best dance companies, not just because of its history, but not in spite of it either. The company doesn't ignore its founder or allow itself to fade into antiquity... Apart from "Revelations," Ailey's 1960 masterpiece that comes standard at the end of every show the late choreographer's company performs in Chicago, this was an entirely new-to-us program of Chicago premieres... It starts with "Busk," by Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton, made in 2009 and added to Ailey's rep last year... Second on the bill, "Ode" (2019) is the latest work from Jamar Roberts, a company dancer recently named choreographer-in-residence (the first in the company's history to hold that title).

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February 06, 2020

The Washington Informer - Alvin Ailey Returns For New Season Of Choreographic Splendor

Hope Boykin, 20-Year Veteran of Dance Theatre, Prepares for Final Bows. The internationally-acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has returned to the District much to the delight of faithful fans and fittingly during Black History Month, with a mixture of classic favorites, new productions and exciting premiered on the Kennedy Center's Opera House stage for seven performances - now through Feb. 9.