Liberian Suite

Liberian Suite was composed by Duke Ellington in 1947 as a tribute to the Liberian Republic’s centennial and had its first performance at Carnegie Hall. In 1952, Lester Horton created a non-literal series of Dances of Celebration for his Dance Theater aimed at capturing the spirit of music—a work of vitality, optimism, and scope. A new version of Liberian Suite for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was described at its 1975 premiere as having been “choreographed by James Truitte, restaged, and freely adapted from the original by Lester Horton.” Liberian Suite has no story and merely a general theme. Most of the Horton choreography that survived consists of dramatic vignettes, such as the starkly impressive “The Beloved.” The restaging shed a new light on Horton's choreography and showed the strong stylistic influence that Horton and his technique had on the choreography of his protégés, including Truitte and Alvin Ailey.