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A male and female dancer hold each other on stage with arms in the air. She is in all black and he's in all white

Repertory

Pas de Duke

COMPANIES

CHOREOGRAPHER

WORLD PREMIERE

New York City Center, 1976

RESTAGING

Matthew Rushing & Ronni Favors 

MUSIC

Duke Ellington

COSTUMES

Rouben Ter-Arutunian

LIGHTING

Chenault Spence

MUSICAL STYLE

Jazz

RUN TIME

  • 12 minutes

Alvin Ailey’s modern dance interpretation of a classical pas de deux feels as fresh and stylish as it did when it premiered 50 years ago. The choreography is elegant and deliciously flirtatious, capturing the sassy sophistication of Duke Ellington’s jazz music and accentuating the dancers’ exuberant virtuosity as they engage in a playful game of one-upmanship.

Pas de Duke was originally created in 1976 as a showcase for Judith Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She was a reigning star of modern dance, and he was one of the world’s most famous ballet dancers, having defected from the Soviet Union two years earlier. Mr. Ailey made brilliant use of the dancers’ physical and stylistic differences. Since then, it has been performed by generations of dancers who have each put their own unique twist on the choreography. The New York Times has praised it as “one of those special dances that lives in new ways with each new set of performers.”

News & Press

The Pas de Trois Behind 'Pas de Duke', The New York Times 

Pas De Duke by Alvin Ailey

A woman in black pants and a black tank top stands in an arabesque.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Ashley Kaylynn Green in Alvin Ailey's Pas de Duke Photo by Paul Kolnik

A female in all black and a male dancer in all white is on stage with one leg in the air

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Constance Stamatiou and Yannick Lebrun in Alvin Ailey's Pas de Duke Photo by Paul Kolnik

A female in all black is on stage with one leg in the air. A male dancer in all white is walking toward her

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Constance Stamatiou and Yannick Lebrun in Alvin Ailey's Pas de Duke Photo by Paul Kolnik

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MUSIC CREDITS

“Such Sweet Thunder” (1957), “Sonnet for Caesar” (1957), “Sonnet to Hank Cinq” (1957), “The Clothed Woman” (1948), “Old Man Blues” (1930). Used with the permission of Tempo Music, Inc., Mercer Ellington Publishing and G. Schirmer Inc.

Funders

Support for this new production of Pas de Duke is provided by Leigh F. Butler, Celestine & Howard Campbell, The Ellen Jewett & Richard L. Kauffman New Works Endowment Fund, Ethel Klein & Edward Krugman, and Daria L. & Eric J. Wallach. 
The original Ailey production of Pas de Duke was made possible, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and by a grant from Ford Foundation. 
Generous support for this production was also received from Laren and Jesse Brill.

Hero Credit: Photo by Paul Kolnik