Thursday, March 28, 2024

Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater Makes Exclusive Southern California Appearance

AAADT performs Billy Wilson’s ‘The Winter in Lisbon’ Photo by Christopher Duggan

*It’s been said that you don’t just see an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance, you feel it! If this doesn’t ring a bell with you, you obviously haven’t witnessed this fabulous troupe of dancers in action.

We can help with that.

Beginning April 18 the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will return to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts for an exclusive engagement. The company will debut five new performances, three of which will include new programs with music by legends of the jazz world.

Members Don’t Get Weary (2017) is choreographed by Bessie Award Winner Jamal Roberts to the music of John Coltrane.

Victoria (2017) is choreographed by Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano to music by Michael Gordon.

A new production of Mass (2004/2017) is choreographed by Ailey Artistic Director Robert Battle to the music of John Mackey.

Two works new to Segerstrom Center are Ella (2008) to music of Ella Fitzgerald and In/Side (2008) to
music of Nina Simone.

‘Revelations’ Choreography by Alvin Ailey Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Photo by Paul Kolnik

The programming also includes beloved Ailey classics The Golden Section (1983) choreographed by Twyla Tharp to music of David Byrne, Stack-Up (1982) choreographed by Talley Beatty to music of Earth, Wind &
Fire, Grover Washington, Jr., Fearless Four and Alphonze Mouzon, and the American Masterpiece Revelations
(1960) choreographed by Alvin Ailey

These works are performed in three different programs from April 19-22. In addition, the engagement opens on
April 18 with Discover Ailey, a special hour-long moderated performance that includes complete performances
of Members Don’t Get Weary, Ella and Revelations.

Discover Ailey is an ideal introduction to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the Company’s energy, artistry and spirit of dance.

Tickets starting at $19 are specially priced for this unique and informative evening.

In anticipation of the Company’s return to the Center, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s stay begins with its
popular FREE Ailey community dance event – Revelations Celebration – on Saturday, April 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the new Julianne and George Argyros Plaza. Visitors of all ages are invited to participate and engage with Company performers, teaching artists, and to enjoy other activities as well. Acclaimed Company teaching artist Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, master teacher for Arts In Education and former AAADT star, will teach the
distinctive movements from three of the most well-known pieces in the Company’s cornerstone work,
Revelations, including “Rocka My Soul,” “Wade in the Water” and “I’ve ‘Been Buked.” Fans and novices alike
are welcome!

AAADT’s Jacquelin Harris and Megan Jakel in Robert Battle’s Ella. Photo by Christopher Duggan

Ticket Info:

Ticket prices for the full performances April 19 – 22 start at $29. Tickets for Discover Ailey on April 18 start at
$19. Tickets for all performances are now available online at SCFTA.org, by calling (714) 556-2787 and at the
Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.

For inquiries about group ticket discounts:

Call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236. Free Preview Talks by Company members will be conducted one hour prior to each performance. The Friday evening, April 20 Preview Talk will be sign-language interpreted. Audiences can also participate in a number of fun and informative pre-show activities. Artists and program are subject to change.

About the dance…

Members Don’t Get WearySouthern California Premiere
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music: John Coltrane

Longtime Ailey dancer and recent “Bessie” Award winner Jamar Roberts makes his choreographic debut on
the Company in this world premiere inspired by the blues. Roberts says, “As a response to the current social
landscape in America, Members Don’t Get Weary takes an abstract look into the notion of one ‘having the
blues.’” Set to the powerful music of the legendary American jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane,
the work aims to inspire the audience, allowing them to momentarily transcend their own personal blues.

VictoriaSouthern California Premiere
Choreography by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano
Music: Michael Gordon

Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s Victoria pairs the Spanish choreographer’s audacious, athletic movement style
with the propulsive drive of “Rewriting Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony” by award-winning composer Michael
Gordon to create a work that feels vital and thrillingly of-the-moment.

MassSouthern California Company Premiere
Choreography by Robert Battle
Music: John Mackey

Mass features a score by John Mackey, who has collaborated on multiple occasions with Robert Battle –
including his 2015 world premiere Awakening. Commissioned for The Juilliard School in 2004, the movement in
this work showcases Robert Battle’s signature ritualistic choreography.

The Golden Section
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
Music: David Byrne

The Golden Section by Tony Award®-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp is a sizzling work set to a propulsive
score by David Byrne. It shatters the limits of human physicality with breathtaking leaps, finely-honed
partnering and explosive joy.

Stack-Up
Choreography by Talley Beatty
Music: Earth, Wind & Fire, Grover Washington, Jr., Fearless Four, Alphonze Mouzon

Set to the background of a throbbing 1970s beat (Earth, Wind and Fire, Grover Washington Jr., Fearless
Four, and Alphonze Mouzon) and a graffiti landscape, patrons in a crowded disco dance with attitude, sass,
and fierce despair in this classic work by Talley Beatty. Inspired by Los Angeles’ urban landscape and the lives
of its disparate inhabitants, Stack-Up depicts the emotional ‘traffic’ in a community that is stacked on top of each
other. Tough, brutal yet poignant, the stage sizzles with street life, break dancing and physical pyrotechnics as an aloof drug pusher and two displaced lovers are destined for collision. The Company returns Stack-Up to the
stage for Beatty’s 2018 centennial.

Ella │Center Premiere

Choreography by Robert Battle
Music: Ella Fitzgerald

Originally created as a solo, this high-energy comical dance by Robert Battle was reinvented as a duet for
Ailey’s December 2016 Opening Night Gala benefit, An Evening of Ailey and Jazz. As celebration of her 2017
birth centennial, using a live concert recording of “Airmail Special” by Ella Fitzgerald, Ella matches the iconic
singer’s virtuosic scatting with lightning-fast, articulated movement in an irresistible tour-de-force that leaves
audiences (and the dancers) breathless.

In/Side │Center Premiere
Choreography by Robert Battle
Music: Nina Simone

The vivid emotions of Nina Simone’s “Wild is the Wind” play out in Robert Battle’s gripping solo. The bold,
unrestrained style that has become his signature is evinced in this visceral cry of pure physicality. The piece,
originally commissioned by Dance New Amsterdam, was created as part of its annual series “In the Company of
Men,” a celebration of the spirit of male dancers in New York in light of the AIDS epidemic.

The Winter in Lisbon
Choreography by Billy Wilson
Music: Dizzy Gillespie

The Winter in Lisbon is a sizzling, sensuous ballet celebrating four decades of Dizzy Gillespie’s brilliant music.
Choreographed in 1992 by Billy Wilson, and restaged for the 2017 centennial of Dizzy Gillespie’s birth, the
work pays tribute to Mr. Gillespie, the consummate jazz musician, creating an atmosphere in which the dancers
challenge, tease and romance against a backdrop of rhythm and color.

Revelations
Choreography by Alvin Ailey
Music: Traditional Spirituals

More than just a popular dance work, Revelations has become a cultural treasure, beloved by generations of
fans. An American classic acclaimed as a must‐see for all, Alvin Ailey’s signature masterpiece is a tribute to
his heritage and genius. Using African-American spirituals, the work fervently explores the places of deepest
grief and holiest joy in the soul. Seeing Revelations for the first time or the hundredth can be a transcendent
experience, with audiences cheering, singing along and dancing in their seats from the opening notes of the
plaintive “I Been ’Buked” to the rousing “Wade in the Water” and the triumphant finale, “Rocka My Soul in the
Bosom of Abraham.”

Venue:

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA
www.scfta.org

Community Event and Moderated Performance

Revelations Celebration Community Event (FREE)
Julianne and George Argyros Plaza
Saturday, April 14 – 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Discover Ailey (hour-long moderated performance)
Segerstrom Hall

Members Don’t Get Weary, Ella, Revelations
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.

FULL PERFORMANCES SCHEDULE:

Segerstrom Hall
April 19 – 22, 2018
Program A
Members Don’t Get Weary / The Golden Section, In/Side / Revelations
Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 22 at 1:00 p.m.

Program B
Stack-Up / Victoria / Ella, Revelations
Friday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Program C
The Winter in Lisbon / Mass, Ella / Revelations
Family Matinee followed by free dancer Q&A
Saturday, April 21 at 2:00 p.m.

Members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will conduct Pre-View lectures one hour prior to each
performance. The preview talk on Friday, April 20 will be sign-language interpreted.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an acclaimed arts institution as well as a beautiful multi-disciplinary cultural
campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence, offering unsurpassed experiences and to engaging the
entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of
inspiring arts-based education and community engagement programs.

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