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Three dancers in mid air looking upward with arms to the back

Repertory

Sweet Release

COMPANIES

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

CHOREOGRAPHER

Judith Jamison

WORLD PREMIERE

State Theater Lincoln Center, 1996

MUSIC

Wynton Marsalis

DÉCOR

Timothy Hunter

COSTUMES

Greg Barnes

LIGHTING

Timothy Hunter

MUSICAL STYLE

Jazz

RUN TIME

30 minutes

The Lincoln Center Festival commissioned Judith Jamison in 1996 to choreograph this ballet, and she chose Wynton Marsalis to compose the music. A love story that revolves around a colorful cast of characters based on friends of Ms. Jamison’s: couples, mature and youthful, a minister, the congregation and the “tempter.”

Male dancer supporting a female dancer in a dramatic horizontal lift.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Karine Plantadit-Bageot and Uri Sands in Judith Jamison's Sweet Release Photo by Richard Corman

Male dancer lifting a female dancer with her legs extended upward, while another dancer lunges forward in the background.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Don Bellamy, Karine Plantadit-Bageot and Uri Sands in Judith Jamison's Sweet Release Photo by Richard Corman

A company of dancers on stage, with the center dancer leaping in a center split

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Judith Jamison's Sweet Release Photo Wolfgang Weimer

Male dancer supporting a female dancer in a dramatic horizontal lift.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Judith Jamison's Sweet Release Photo Wolfgang Weimer

A company of dancers on stage, with the center dancer leaning backwards

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Judith Jamison's Sweet Release Photo Wolfgang Weimer

A group of dancers in flesh tone dresses look up and reach their hands to the sky

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Hero Credit: Photo by Richard Corman