Searchlight

A group of dancers support a central woman, guiding her on a spiritual quest to find light in Robert Battle’s Searchlight. The work is inspired by the relationship between Ailey II Artistic Director Francesca Harper and her late mother, Denise Jefferson (former director of The Ailey School). With his signature musical sophistication, Battle juxtaposes the tension of Steve Reich’s “It’s Gonna Rain, Part II” with the healing quality of Renée Fleming and Christoph Eschenbach’s “Nacht Und Träume, D.827,” finding equilibrium between the extremes just as the dancers find perfect balance in motion.