FSCJ Artist Series Presents Alvin Ailey, The American Dance Theater

Following a five-week season launch in New York City, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will continue to grace stages from coast to coast, arriving at Jacksonville's Times-Union Center on February 20, 2018 for one performance only.

Alvin Ailey's 32 extraordinary dancers will inspire audiences in exciting premieres, new productions, and Alvin Ailey's must-see American Masterpiece, Revelations. World premieres will include Ailey Star Jamar Roberts' Members Don't Get Weary and Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano's Victoria. The tour also features the Company premiere of Robert Battle's Mass, and new productions of works by Twyla Tharp, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Talley Beatty in celebration of his upcoming centennial.

Artistic Director Robert Battle leads Ailey's 32 extraordinary dancers as they continue the Company's legacy of using the African-American cultural experience and the American modern dance tradition to uplift, unite, and enlighten. The tour's expansive repertory - which varies from city to city - includes returning favorites, new productions, and world premieres by some of the freshest choreographic voices in modern dance.

Ailey star Jamar Roberts' Members Don't Get Weary is his first world premiere for the Company, which he joined in 2002. Roberts says the work is "a response to the current social landscape in America," and "takes an abstract look into the notion of one 'having the blues.'" Set to the powerful music of the legendary jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane 50 years after his death, the work aims to allow the audience to momentarily transcend their own personal blues.

Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano's work takes the Ailey stage for the first time with his world premiere, Victoria. Spanish for "victory," the work is a tribute to the triumph of good over evil. Set to an adaptation of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony by award-winning composer Michael Gordon, Victoria features Sansano's signature whimsy, theatricality, and physicality. Sansano's work - hailed for its originality and expressiveness - has appeared on companies around the world, including Nederlands Dans Theater, Compañía Nacional de Danza, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet Hispánico, and Atlanta Ballet.

The tour will also include a striking Company premiere by Robert Battle, and riveting new productions by three American dance innovators. Battle's Mass is an ensemble work that gives physical life to a haunting score by frequent collaborator John Mackey. Tony Award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp's The Golden Section is a sizzling ensemble work filled with breathtaking leaps, finely-honed partnering, and explosive joy, and is set to a propulsive score by David Byrne. Urban Bush Women founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's Shelter - a gripping portrait of homelessness, set to an inventive score featuring drumming by Junior "Gabu" Wedderburn, poetry by Hattie Gossett and Laurie Carlos, and an adapted text by Zollar and Paloma McGregor that references recent natural disasters - returns to the Ailey stage 25 years after first being performed by the Company. Ailey also celebrates modern dance pioneer Talley Beatty during his centennial with the return of Stack-Up, set to the background of vibrant 1970s beats (Earth, Wind & Fire, Grover Washington Jr., Fearless Four, and Alphonze Mouzon) and a graffiti landscape. Inspired by Los Angeles' urban landscape and the lives of its disparate inhabitants, the work depicts the emotional "traffic" in a community that is stacked on top of each other.

And of course, the tour would be incomplete without Alvin Ailey's American Masterpiece Revelations, which will reach every city. Since its creation in 1960, Revelations has been seen by more audiences around the world than any other modern work, inspiring generations through its powerful storytelling and soul-stirring spirituals. Springing from Ailey's childhood memories of growing up in the south and attending services at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Texas, Revelations pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of the African-American and explores the emotional spectrum of the human condition. Revelations has been performed as part of Opening Ceremonies of the 1968 Olympics, for six sitting presidents at various events, at the inaugurations of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and at The White House Dance Series: A Tribute to Judith Jamison, presented by then First Lady Michelle Obama. Acknowledging its lasting significance after five decades, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution recognizing the artistic and cultural contributions of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the 50th Anniversary of the first performance of Revelations. Hailed by The New York Times as "modern dance's unquestionable greatest hit," this American masterpiece was choreographed when Alvin Ailey was only 29 years old, and is as relevant now as ever. Complete programming for Ailey's North American tour will be announced in January 2018.

Nearly 60 years after its founding, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to move forward under the leadership of Robert Battle, revealing once again why it remains one of the world's most beloved dance companies. Come see why The Huffington Post proclaimed, "If you haven't seen Alvin Ailey, you haven't seen dance...the most exciting dance company in the world," and The Chicago Sun-Times called the Company "more electrifying than ever." For more information, 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.

The FSCJ Artist Series has been recognized by the State of Florida as a Major Cultural Institution and receives funding from the State of Florida, through the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council.

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