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A dancer is posed on a white background. Her arms are in the air and she is wearing a short brown dress, that she is twirling.

Repertory

Quintet

COMPANIES

CHOREOGRAPHER

PREMIERE

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Edinburgh Festival, 1968 (world)

Ailey II:

RESTAGING

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Linda Kent, Michelle Murray, Renee Rose Thorpes, Sylvia Waters

Ailey II: Sylvia Waters and Alia Kache

MUSIC

Laura Nyro

COSTUMES

Matthew Cameron
Costumes Recreated by Jose Coronado

LIGHTING

Nicola Cernovitch

RUN TIME

  • 20 minutes

Alvin Ailey’s unique gift for blending serious choreography and themes with affectionate teasing of his characters is apparent in Quintet, which examines the private being behind a highly public face. Choreographed in 1968 to the timeless songs of Laura Nyro, Quintet was thematically the first of its kind created by Mr. Ailey. As his biographer Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times wrote, “Quintet is in its way a small masterwork and one that differed significantly from other Ailey signature works before it."

A woman in a red dress is posing on a white background. She has a blonde wig on and her right hand is outstretched. Her left hand is on her hip and her legs are crossed.

Ailey II in Alvin Ailey's Quintet Photo by Eduardo Patino, NYC

A dancer is posed on a white background. Her arms are in the air and she is wearing a short brown dress, that she is twirling.

Ailey II in Alvin Ailey's Quintet Photo by Eduardo Patino, NYC

Like 'Reflections in D', the piece was an imaginative and sensitive reading of its score, and it offered yet more proof of Alvin's distinctive gift for blending serious choreography and themes with affectionate teasing of his characters. In the new piece, however, Alvin explored for the first time the private being behind a highly public face, a subject he would return to repeatedly.

Jennifer Dunning, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance

Music Credits

“The Confession,” “Picnic, a Green City,” “Woman’s Blues,” “Lucky,” “Poverty Train,” and “December Boudoir” by Laura Nyro. Used by permission of EMI Blackwood Music, Inc.

Hero Credit: Photo by Eduardo Patino, NYC