A Conversation with Robert Battle.
Series: Art Works Podcast
From: National Endowment for the Arts
Length: 00:33:04
Robert Battle assumed the role of artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in July 2011, He is only the third artisitic leader since Mr. Ailey began the company in 1958. Judith Jamison, a leader dancer in the company picked up Ailey's mantle and became its director with Ailey's death in 1989. She chose Robert Battle to follow her saying at the time: "Robert Battle is without question the creative force of the future."
The Alvin Ailey Company is a rarity in the world of performing art: it operates in the black, selling out its annual five week season in City Center's 2200 plus seats. Seeing the Ailey Dance theater is a joyous event, and its dedicated audience feels a great kinship with the company. Generations of children have been introduced to dance through Mr Ailey's masterwork "Revelations" which premiered in 1960 and is still performed to standing room only audiences.
So while Robert Battle brings a lot to the table---a career as a dancer, an innovative choreographer, and as founder and director of his own company, Battleworks, he also had his work cut out for him. He needed to honor the wonderful traditions of the company while still moving it forward as a modern 21st century dance troupe. Well, if his very successful recently-ended first season is any indication, Battle has found the right balance with an ambitious program that stretches the company in new directions while still maintaining its identity.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
Robert Battle assumed the role of artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in July 2011, He is only the third artisitic leader since Mr. Ailey began the company in 1958. Judith Jamison, a leader dancer in the company picked up Ailey's mantle and became its director with Ailey's death in 1989. She chose Robert Battle to follow her saying at the time: "Robert Battle is without question the creative force of the future."
The Alvin Ailey Company is a rarity in the world of performing art: it operates in the black, selling out its annual five week season in City Center's 2200 plus seats. Seeing the Ailey Dance theater is a joyous event, and its dedicated audience feels a great kinship with the company. Generations of children have been introduced to dance through Mr Ailey's masterwork "Revelations" which premiered in 1960 and is still performed to standing room only audiences.
So while Robert Battle brings a lot to the table---a career as a dancer, an innovative choreographer, and as founder and director of his own company, Battleworks, he also had his work cut out for him. He needed to honor the wonderful traditions of the company while still moving it forward as a modern 21st century dance troupe. Well, if his very successful recently-ended first season is any indication, Battle has found the right balance with an ambitious program that stretches the company in new directions while still maintaining its identity.
Transcript
Transcript of conversation with Robert Battle
Robert Battle: As a young child, growing up in Miami and we were bussed to Miami Beach, Jackie Gleason Performing Arts Center, to see a mini performance, as we called them. Of course, to us, as young people, it was a major performance, you know? We didn't know the difference. And I had seen "Revelations" and "Cry" and Mr. Ailey's masterpieces on videotape but never up close and personal and I think that was just such an eye-opening, heart-opening moment for me, to see this live in that theater and to see this magic on stage, these larger than life dancers moving that way, such brilliance and eloquence. In a way, I learned more about my history through that movement than I could ever learn from a textbook or anything else because the dance says so much. It's brilliant. There's a reason why it still exists and people still break down the door...
Read the full transcript
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| excerpts from REVELATIONS | Alvin Ailey Dance Theater | 00:00 |
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