For five weeks this winter at New York City Center, the Ailey company brings you dance that reveals our deepest humanity and our capacity to endure.
Each performance offers a different selection from our expansive repertory, and most culminate with Mr. Ailey’s inspiring Revelations – the world’s most popular work of modern dance. In addition to 18 returning audience favorites, you can experience 6 premieres & new productions:
Mass by Robert Battle
The idea for this mesmerizing dance came to Battle at a choral concert where he became absorbed by how the singers moved as a unit. In response, he created an endlessly inventive work that deconstructs the choir, giving physical life to John Mackey’s haunting percussion score.
Stack-Up by Talley Beatty
A throbbing 1970s soundtrack that includes Grover Washington Jr. and Earth, Wind & Fire drives the sizzling pyrotechnics of this work set against an urban backdrop on “a hot summer night when passions are strong and tempers are fierce. The choreography is spectacular.” (New York Times)
Members Don't Get Weary by Jamar Roberts
In his first work for the Company – using music by jazz legend John Coltrane – the veteran Company member and recent “Bessie” Award winner inspires audiences to transcend our current social landscape by dancing away the blues.
Victoria by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano
Renowned for an audacious, athletic style that’s a natural fit for Ailey, Sansano has named his premiere – Spanish for "victory" – as a tribute to the triumph of good over evil. The large ensemble work is set to "Rewriting Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony" by award-winning composer Michael Gordon.
The Golden Section by Twyla Tharp
Tony Award winner Tharp’s exuberant ballet is full of breathtaking leaps and finely-honed partnering. Set to a new wave rock score by David Byrne, it offers “dancing of astonishing beauty and power” (The New Yorker).
Shelter by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
The Ailey dancers bring unbridled power to Zollar’s gripping portrait of homelessness that confronts the toll of poverty and neglect on the body and soul. The original score incorporates drumming by Junior “Gabu” Wedderburn and spoken word by Hattie Gossett & Laurie Carlos.
