Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returned to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for the first time in 13 years for a seven-performance engagement at the David H. Koch Theater which began on Wednesday, June 12 and ends on June 16, 2013.
Led by Robert Battle, the opening night program featured a world premiere of “Four Corners” by celebrated choreographer Ronald K. Brown, Jií Kylián’s “Petite Mort” and Alvin Ailey’s acclaimed American masterpiece “Revelations.” Battle invited three new dancers to join and perform with the acclaimed 30-member Company during the seven-performance engagement.
Becoming a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater this season are Jeroboam Bozeman (Brooklyn, NY) and Fana Tesfagiorgis (Madison, WI), much-admired former members of Ailey II, and Elisa Clark (Brandywine, MD), who previously performed with Battleworks Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.
During the spring engagement, the renowned Matthew Rushing will celebrate the completion of 20 years with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and lead the cast of Ronald K. Brown’s newest work, “Four Corners.” Set to the music of Carl Hancock Rux, Yacoub, and various other artists, the work brings to life the vision of four angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding the four winds. The Ailey dancers have become known as inspiring interpreters of Brown’s unique dance storytelling and the opening night world premiere cast included Linda Celeste Sims, Belen Pereyra, Glenn Allen Sims, Demetia Hopkins, Hope Boykin, Fana Tesfagiorgis, Jacqueline Green, Kirven James Boyd, Daniel Harder, and Michael Francis McBride.
Other casting highlights include the successful on stage partnerships of Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims and Alicia Graf Mack and Jamar Roberts in striking duets during Petite Mort and the “Fix Me, Jesus” section of Revelations. Kirven James Boyd and Jamar Roberts are scheduled to perform the fast-paced movements and propulsive jumps of the dynamic solo Takademe, Robert Battle’s humorous and savvy deconstruction and abstraction of the tightly woven rhythms of Indian Kathak dance.
A free question-and-answer session with Ailey’s much-admired dancers will follow the inspiring finale of “Revelations” at the Saturday, June 15, 2:00 p.m. Family Matinee performance.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the curtain rise on the unparalleled combination of Ailey’s amazing dancers and the choreography of masters Ronald K. Brown, Alvin Ailey, Garth Fagan, Jií Kylián, and Ohad Naharin, stated Robert Battle. “The engagement is a momentous occasion for Ailey and so personally meaningful to me. Lincoln Center is where I started my journey in the New York dance world, first experiencing the genius of Garth Fagan and so many others while a student at The Juilliard School.”
Photo by Andrew Eccles
