Alvin Ailey Launches 23-City North American Tour Today

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, beloved as one of the world's most popular dance companies, will travel coast to coast beginning in February on a 23-city North American tour hitting major markets such as Atlanta, Miami, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago (full schedule below). The 25th season since the passing of legendary founder Alvin Ailey is led by Artistic Director Robert Battle who continues to expand the Company's diverse repertory with a wide range of important choreographic voices. Exciting premieres and new productions give Ailey's 30 extraordinary dancers even more ways to inspire audiences. Highlights of the season, launching in New York in December, include: (tour programming will be announced by January):

LIFT, a world premiere by in-demand choreographer Aszure Barton, is an exhilarating new work that celebrates and challenges the cast of 19. Created with Barton's collaborative stylistic approach that is constantly evolving like no other. Ailey's renowned dancers inspired the process, movement and composition, as well as the original percussive score by Curtis Macdonald.

Chroma, a ballet filled with layered, beautiful dancing and astonishing lifts, marks the first time a work by multi award-winning British choreographer Wayne McGregor appears in the Ailey repertory. Created in 2006 for The Royal Ballet, the piece has a driving score by Joby Talbot and orchestrations of music by Jack White III of The White Stripes and a luminous set by minimalist architect John Pawson.

D-Man in the Waters (Part I) is a true modern dance classic and a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award-winning work by modern dance innovator Bill T. Jones, a Tony Award-winner for Fela! and Spring Awakening. Originally created in 1989, it is a celebration of life and the resiliency of the human spirit that embodies loss, hope and triumph with non-stop movement set to Mendelssohn's Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (1825).

Four Corners is celebrated choreographer Ronald K. Brown's fifth work for Ailey's extraordinary dancers, who have become known as inspiring interpreters of his phenomenal dance storytelling. Set to the music of Carl Hancock Rux and various artists, the 11 dancers on a spiritual journey bring to life the vision of four angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding the four winds.

The River, originally choreographed in 1970 for American Ballet Theatre, is a legendary collaboration between two great American artists, Alvin Ailey and Duke Ellington. The suite combines classical ballet, modern dance, and jazz in sections suggesting tumbling rapids and slow currents on a voyage to the great sea, mirroring the journey of life.

Pas de Duke, Alvin Ailey's modern dance translation of a classical pas de deux, was created in 1976 for two of the world's most renowned dancers, Judith Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov. First presented as part of the "Ailey Celebrates Ellington" festival at Lincoln Center's New York State Theater for the nation's bicentennial, it commemorates America's two great art forms - modern dance and jazz music.

Encore performances of recent Battle commissions include McArthur "Genius" Award recipient Kyle Abraham's Another Night, Ronald

K. Brown's landmark and spiritually-charged Grace, Ji?í Kylián's sensual and visually surprising Petite Mort, Tony Award-winning The Lion King choreographer Garth Fagan'sseminal From Before, Ohad Naharin's unique and innovative Minus 16, modern dance master Paul Taylor's Arden Court, and hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris' soul-liftingHome. Also, a variety of repertory favorites and classic Ailey works will be performed, including Robert Battle's thrillingly intense Strange Humors and the always inspiring must-see American masterpiece Revelations.

Audience members are also invited to join in the dance during their next New York City visit with a complimentary first class free using a ticket stub from any Ailey performance. The Ailey Extension's popular program of 80 weekly "real classes for real people" has been enjoyed by over 70,000 at Ailey's building The Joan Weill Center for Dance, New York's largest building dedicated to dance. Each "Ticket to Dance" special offer is good for one year from the performance date for first time students, and when purchasing a 10-class card for classes for returning students.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater inspires all in a universal celebration of the human spirit using the African-American cultural experience and the American modern dance tradition. For further information, visit: www.alvinailey.org

The tour schedule includes:

February 4-9 February 13-16 February 18 February 20-23 February 24 February 25 Feb 28-March 9 March 11 March 12 March 14-15 March 18 March 19 March 22-23 March 26-30 April 1-6 April 8-9 April 11-13 April 22-23 April 25-26 April 27 April 29 May 1-4 May 10-11

Washington, DC Atlanta, GA Clearwater, FL Miami, FL West Palm Beach, FL Jacksonville, FL Chicago, IL Danville, KY Bloomington, IN Houston, TX Des Moines, IA Cedar Rapids, IA Las Vegas, NV Costa Mesa, CA Berkeley, CA Victoria, BC Seattle, WA Chapel Hill, NC St. Louis, MO Springfield, IL Utica, NY Boston, MA Newark, NJ

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The Fox Theatre Ruth Eckerd Hall Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Kravis Center Times Union Center/ Florida Community College at Jacksonville Auditorium Theater Norton Center, Centre College Indiana University Auditorium Jones Hall, Houston Society for the Performing Arts Des Moines Civic Center Paramount Theater Smith Theater Segerstrom Center Zellerbach Hall / University of California, Berkeley Royal Theater Paramount Theater Memorial Hall/ University of North Carolina Fox Theater Sangamon Auditorium Stanley Theater, Munson-Williams Proctor Arts Institute Wang Theater / Citi Performing Arts Center New Jersey Performing Arts Center

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