Alvin Ailey Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack – Photo: Andrew Eccles
Dance and culture fans of the DMV might have been taken aback when the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater announced in May that the company would skip their annual run at the Kennedy Center this year. But probably few were surprised.
The number of esteemed companies, productions, and performers who have chosen recently to take their engagements elsewhere, in the wake of the venue’s hostile takeover by this administration, grows by the day.
Just this week, in fact, Seattle Children’s Theatre announced it’s canceling the scheduled East Coast premiere of Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story, and the Martha Graham Dance Company announced that, “for a variety of reasons,” the company has decided to withdraw their spring run at the institution.
Officially, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater — like Seattle Children’s and Martha Graham — has stated a desire to return to the Kennedy Center in the future. For now, AAADT’s future begins with the launch of its 20-city U.S. tour in a blockbuster 11-performance run at Washington, D.C.’s historic Warner Theatre.
“We’ve had a relationship with the Warner for many years,” says Alicia Graf Mack, Alvin Ailey’s artistic director, just months into her first season leading the world-renowned outfit. “The company performed there before the Kennedy Center, and sometime in between as well. So it also feels like a homecoming of sorts.”
Speaking from her home in New York City, Graf Mack also expanded on the dance company’s statement, included in the May announcement, that the venue change was prompted by an “opportunity with a partner that has global reach.”
“We had the opportunity to partner with Live Nation,” she says. “To work with a presenter with global reach, and to present an expanded season of 11 performances this year. It was the opportunity to bring our work to even more people over more days in D.C. and to partner with a new presenter that we hadn’t worked with in the past.”
Embracing the new while honoring and preserving the artistry and legacy of Alvin Ailey’s rich past is just one of the multitude of concerns under Graf Mack’s purview.
“This role actually requires me to set the artistic vision of the entire organization,” she says. “So not just Ailey, the main company, but also Ailey II, [and] of our incredible school that includes our junior division, our professional division, and our school for the little ones. And then we have an extension program whose mission is to bring dance to all.”
Then, of course, the company tours internationally as well. “So it’s extensive,” says Graf Mack, a DMV native and star performer on the Ailey stage between 2005 and 2014, in addition to a distinguished career as an educator, and raising two dancing daughters with her husband.
At the heart of all her hard work and commitment, she says, is that young dreamer she once was, “inspired to move and to dance.” After being a part of the organization as a dancer and supporter for so many years, “returning to Ailey in this role is quite a shift, but actually it feels like a homecoming, which has been really beautiful.”
Audiences can partake in that sense of coming home to something beautiful and brand-new with AAADT’s impressive slate of world premiere works and a company premiere, to accompany repertory favorites like Ronald K. Brown’s Grace and Alvin Ailey’s timeless Revelations.
Audiences will see Matthew Neenan’s contemporary ballet Difference Between, the pop music-infused Embrace by Frederick Earl Mosley, The Holy Blues by Jawole Will Jo Zollar, in collaboration with Samantha Figgins (a company member from the DMV) and Chalvar Monteiro, and Song of the Anchorite from Jamar Roberts.
Roberts, a longtime performer with Alvin Ailey, who then transitioned into becoming an internationally acclaimed choreographer, was also Graf Mack’s partner when they were dancing. “He stands at 6’4″, so he’s a perfect partner for me,” says Graf Mack, who at at 5’10” is considered unusually tall for a female dancer.
“We have been dancing and been friends for many, many years,” she adds. “So I thought as my first year in the company, he has to create a work, and he’s created many works for Ailey so far.” This particular work re-imagines Ailey’s classic Hermit Song, creating new expression based on recently uncovered archival footage of Ailey, who passed away in 1989, rehearsing the piece himself.
As Graf Mack puts it, “the vision of this new era is always to honor the legacy from which we come and innovate upon it. So [Song of the Anchorite] is a perfect example of how we take something that has been such a strong tradition and we move it forward in time.”
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater engagement runs Jan. 30 until Feb. 8, at the Warner Theatre, with five different programs scheduled: Season Premieres A (Jan. 30-31, Feb. 3 and 7); Gala Benefit (Feb. 4), Grace + A Case of You (Jan. 31 and Feb. 1); Season Premieres B (Feb. 5 and 7); Ailey Legacy (Feb. 6 and 8). Tickets are $49 to $149. For tickets, visit warnertheatredc.com/shows.
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