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’ 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

May 15, 2024

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Presents Two Thrilling Programs At BAM (Brooklyn Academy Of Music), June 4-9, 2024

BROOKLYN, NY - May 15, 2024 - BAM is excited to welcome back the iconic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrating its 65th anniversary, June 4-9, bringing its kinetic energy and dazzling technique with two exuberant programs: "Contemporary Visions" - featuring pieces by renowned choreographers Alonzo King, Jamar Roberts, and Hans van Manen; and "All Ailey" - which includes Ailey's must-see masterpiece, Revelations.

January 24, 2024

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 2024 United States Tour Brings Celebratory 65th Anniversary Season To 21 Cities, January 25 - May 12 With Exciting New Works And Alvin Ailey's Timeless Revelations

NEW YORK – January 24, 2024 — After an acclaimed 65th Anniversary season launch in New York City, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – beloved as one of the world’s most popular dance companies – will continue to grace stages during a 21-city United States tour starting January 25 in Atlanta and continues coast-to-coast to cities like Washington, D.C., Miami, Boston, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, before culminating with a Mother’s Day performance in Newark on May 12. The passionate spirit and extraordinary technique of Ailey’s dancers will be showcased in a diverse repertory of new works, repertory favorites, and Ailey classics.

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.

Featured Press Coverage

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February 14, 2024

NPR - A Dance About Gun Violence Is Touring Nationally With Alvin Ailey's Company

Jamar Roberts did not initially know he would create a piece to address gun violence. But he did know he needed dance to cope, after years of headlines about its victims: Michael Brown, Tamar Rice, Philando Castile, Jordan Edwards and many, many more. "It's the first thing I thought I needed to do — just for my own self, to help process what I was seeing in the media," Roberts told NPR. "It didn't really come out like 'Oh, I want to make a dance about this.' I just started sort of moving. It just appeared."

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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).

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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).