Alvin Ailey Presents MOONLIGHT X AILEY Dance Film Short

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater announces Moonlight x Ailey, a new dance film short choreographed by Artistic Director Robert Battle in a unique collaboration with Academy Award-winning composer Nicholas Britell. Inspired by the critically-acclaimed drama Moonlight, Best Picture winner at the 74th AnnuAl Golden Globe® Awards and nominated for eight Oscars® at next week's Academy Awards®, the blue-lit movements are danced by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Jamar Roberts, and The Ailey School students Christopher Taylor and Jeremy T. Villas. Robert Battle, the film's director Barry Jenkins, and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney are from Miami's Liberty City neighborhood - the setting for Moonlight.

Currently on a coast-to-coast U.S. tour, Jamar Roberts and Ailey's extraordinary dancers are looking forward to bringing their artistry to the stage of the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami from February 23-26 with works that shine a spotlight on society (See The New Yorker video with Robert Battle - Alvin Ailey's Enduring Vision) and Alvin Ailey's American masterpiece Revelations, the work that Robert Battle saw as a teen in Miami, which helped catapult him on his journey from Liberty City to the helm of Ailey (See PBS News Hour - Historic Dance Company Prepares for New Steps).

For more information about Ailey's 2017 U.S. Tour, visit www.alvinailey.org.

ABOUT Alvin Ailey AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, recognized by U.S. Congressional resolution as a vital American "Cultural Ambassador to the World," grew from a now?fabled March 1958 performance in New York that changed forever the perception of American dance. Founded by Alvin Ailey, recent posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the nation's highest civilian honor, and guided by Judith Jamison beginning in 1989, the Company is now led by Robert Battle, whom Judith Jamison chose to succeed her on July 1, 2011. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed for an estimated 25 million people in 71 countries on 6 continents - as well as millions more through television broadcasts, film screenings, and online platforms - promoting the uniqueness of the African?American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance tradition. In addition to being the Principal Dance Company of New York City Center, where its performances have become a year?end tradition, the Ailey company performs annually at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami?Dade County in Miami, The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA and at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (where it is the Principal Resident Affiliate), and appears frequently in other major theaters throughout the United States and the world during extensive yearly tours. The Ailey organization also includes Ailey II (1974), a second performing company of emerging young dancers and innovative choreographers; The Ailey School (1969), one of the most extensive dance training programs in the world; Ailey Arts in Education & Community Programs, which brings dance into the classrooms, communities and lives of people of all ages; and The Ailey Extension (2005), a program offering dance and fitness classes to the general public, which began with the opening of Ailey's permanent home-the largest building dedicated to dance in New York City, the dance capital of the world -named The Joan Weill Center for Dance, at 55th Street at 9th Avenue in New York City. For more information, visit www.alvinailey.org.