The New York Times - #SpeakingInDance: Elevating Hope Amid Danger
"There's danger in the air, and the character that I portray is supposed to resemble hope at the highest power," said Jeroboam Bozeman, a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, about his role in "Ode." In this powerful new dance created by Jamar Roberts for the company's season at City Center (through Jan. 5), the dancers explore the effects of gun violence to a jazz score by the pianist Don Pullen. In this solo, Mr. Bozeman said he sees himself "kind of like a high priestess," he said. "Someone who oversees, but also has this sense of wisdom. I think about Trayvon Martin. I think about Philando Castile. I think about Sandra Bland. I think about Eric Garner. These are people we lost to police brutality." He admires how Mr. Roberts created such a multilayered, poetic dance about such a brutal subject.
