Ailey at Jacob's Pillow - A History

Alvin Ailey and his company have had a long and storied history with Jacob's Pillow.

Mr. Ailey first presented his work at the Pillow in 1954 as the interim artistic director of the Lester Horton Dance Company, following Lester Horton’s death. It was not the auspicious beginning one would expect for the choreographer who would eventually be named one of the finest and most renowned in the world. Ted Shawn, the Pillow’s founder, was not impressed. "How dare you let this young man bring these ballets, these unfinished ballets with no form and no structure,” Shawn wrote of Mr. Ailey’s work to the company’s manager Frank Eng. The reviews were no better; Walter Terry called Mr. Ailey’s work “more sleep-inducing than stirring.”  

However, after achieving early success as a choreographer in New York, Mr. Ailey returned to the Pillow in 1959. He had been recognized for his work Blues Suite, which captured the sultry, sensual yearning of the blues through Mr. Ailey’s innovative movement. At the Pillow, he presented his work on a shared program with former Martha Graham dancer Pearl Lang and modern dance legend Ruth St. Denis. This time, Shawn recognized Mr. Ailey’s unique brand of genius. 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returned to the Pillow again in 1961 to perform Revelations. It was during this engagement that Mr. Ailey adapted the ballet to its current iteration, cutting several sections and adding the solo “I Wanna Be Ready.” Linda Kent, a scholarship student at the Pillow who would later join Mr. Ailey's company, remembered seeing him perform “Sinner Man” and thought, “Here was this incredible emotional impact. Pain, joy, rage. This is what I was looking for. I thought, ‘Wow, this is about living.’ I want to be a person on stage.” 

Since then, Jacob's Pillow has frequently showcased Mr. Ailey's works, although Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returned only once more in 1963. In 1964, Mr. Ailey choreographed The Twelve Gates, a duet performed by Carmen de Lavallade and James Truitte as an ode to Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis on what would have been their 50th anniversary (they had been divorced for 30 years). In 1988, the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (now Ailey II) performed at the Pillow, with Alvin Ailey in attendance.  

Even though the main company hasn’t performed at the Pillow for 62 years, Mr. Ailey’s work made frequent appearances in the interim years. Ailey dancer Clive Thompson performed "I Wanna Be Ready" from Revelations on the American Sampler program in 1981 and the solo Hermit Songs at the 1983 Gala. Excerpts from Revelations were presented during the Horton Workshop in 1986, during the 1988 Gala, by the Men's Dances Workshop in 1997, and as part of the 75th Anniversary Gala in 2007, where Matthew Rushing performed “I Wanna Be Ready.” Mr. Ailey’s Streams, Hidden Rites, Cry, The Lark Ascending, and Pas de Duke have also all been showcased at the Pillow in the years since the company's last performance.  

This August 20–24, the Ailey company returns to the Ted Shawn Theatre for the first time since 1963, presenting works that showcase the expansive range the dancers and choreographers have developed over the past six decades. As well as the seminal Revelations returning to the Pillow stage, the company will perform Alvin Ailey’s Cry, originally choreographed for Judith Jamison as a tribute to Black women everywhere; Lar Lubovitch’s lush, ethereal Many Angels; and Amy Hall Garner’s CENTURY, a rambunctious ode to the jazz and swing-era music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ray Charles, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. 

Simultaneously, on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, students from Ailey Extension’s open classes will perform Associate Artistic Director Matthew Rushing’s Sacred Songs: A Journey of the Spiritual, August 21–22. Rushing developed the work with these students, putting into practice AILEY’s creed that dance should be delivered back to the people.  

Additional AILEY programming at the Pillow will feature works by artists showcased in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent Edges of Ailey, the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate Alvin Ailey’s enduring legacy.  

Taken in its entirety, AILEY’s return to Jacob’s Pillow will reveal Mr. Ailey’s enormous influence and reach in the world, bringing that legacy back to one of the places where it all started.