Ailey Moves NYC! Free Summer Dance Celebration to Return to All Five Boroughs This Summer

Embracing people everywhere in the city that is its home, the Ailey organization will once again offer Ailey Moves NYC!, presenting six days of free performances, dance classes, and workshops throughout the city’s five boroughs. Presented for the second year, this summer dance celebration takes place July 31-August 5, featuring  performances by the rising stars of Ailey II, as well as classes and workshops led by highly regarded teaching artists from The Ailey School’s renowned training programs, Ailey Extension’s dance and fitness classes for the general public, and Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs, which fulfill Alvin Ailey’s belief that “dance is for everybody.”

Ailey Moves NYC! is the centerpiece of a summer of free Ailey programming, which also includes Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s participation in the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center July 25-29 and culminates on August 10 with Dance in Times Square and a free Hip-Hop 50th Anniversary Celebration dance party with Ailey Extension. 

Robert Battle, Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, said, “Everywhere we went last summer, through all the boroughs, the amazing people of New York greeted us with such enthusiasm that the energy we were pouring out seemed to come back to us times ten. We knew we had to return this year with a new Ailey Moves NYC!, manifesting Mr. Ailey’s belief that ‘dance came from the people and should always be delivered back to the people.’”

Ailey Moves NYC! kicks off in Brooklyn at Von King Cultural Center on Monday, July 31, with free classes for teens and adults led by The Ailey School. Ailey II, the organization’s professional company for emerging young dancers, will present two performances that week—on Tuesday, August 1 at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and on Thursday, August 3 at Bryant Park in Midtown. Ailey Extension will conduct dance classes before each of these performances. On Friday, August 4, at Manhattan’s Little Island, Ailey Arts In Education will host a workshop on Revelations, Alvin Ailey’s American masterpiece, which has inspired generations through its powerful storytelling and soul-stirring spirituals. Other venues include Pomonock Older Adult Center in Queens and Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island. The week-long celebration concludes in the Bronx on Saturday, August 5, with a class led by Ailey Arts In Education as part of the New York Botanical Garden’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.

Bennett Rink, Executive Director of Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, said, “The Ailey organization has been committed to the people of New York City since Alvin Ailey’s dancers presented their first performance here in 1958. We could not be more proud to bring our performances, classes, and workshops to our fellow New Yorkers all across the city, and are deeply grateful to our Board, our donors, and our wonderful Ailey Moves NYC! partners for making this program possible.” 

Free summer programming featuring Ailey for New Yorkers and their guests from around the world begins July 25-29, when Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater joins four other iconic New York dance companies—Ballet Hispánico, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theater of Harlem—on the stage of Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park for the annual BAAND Together Dance Festival. Audiences will be treated to exciting evenings of programming curated collaboratively by the artistic directors of the companies, made possible by CHANEL. An Ailey Dance Workshop on Thursday, July 27 at 4 pm is part of a line-up of afternoon educational workshops appropriate for all ages, where the companies will bring their distinctive teaching styles to campus. 

Free programming culminates with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop in partnership with Times Square Alliance. On Thursday, August 10, Ailey Extension will wrap its ongoing series of free workshops with Dance in Times Square at 46th Street and Broadway with a high-spirited, outdoor dance party led by TweetBoogie, a celebrated dancer and choreographer born in the Bronx, along with a squad of other popular teachers including Jonathan Lee, and Yancy Greene.

Lisa Johnson-Willingham, Director of Ailey Extension, said, “Throughout this summer we are reaching out, just as the name Ailey Extension suggests, to people of every age, experience level, and background. We want New Yorkers from every corner of the city to feel the joy of dance and its power to build community, just as they do year-round in our classes at the Ailey Studios in The Joan Weill Center for Dance, New York’s largest building dedicated to dance.”

Monday, July 31

4 pm
Von King Cultural Center (Brooklyn)
The Ailey School, Tweens Class
 
6 pm 
Von King Cultural Center (Brooklyn)
The Ailey School, Adults Class
Tuesday, August 1
10 am
Pomonock Older Adult Center (Queens)
Arts In Education, AileyDance for Active Aging
 
6 pm
Marcus Garvey Park (Harlem)
Ailey Extension, Pre-Show Class
 
7 pm
Marcus Garvey Park (Harlem)
Ailey II Performance

Wednesday, August 2

6:30 pm
Snug Harbor Cultural Center
(Staten Island)
The Ailey School, Community Dance Class

Thursday, August 3

6 pm
Bryant Park (Manhattan)
Ailey Extension, Pre-Show Class
 
7 pm
Bryant Park (Manhattan)
Ailey II Performance

Friday, August 4

3 pm
Little Island (Manhattan)
Ailey Arts In Education, Revelations Workshop
Saturday, August 5
TBD
New York Botanical Gardens
(The Bronx)
Ailey Arts In Education, Hip-Hop Dance Class

Photo credit: Rob DeMartin