AILEY at Jacob's Pillow

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First Appearance by the Company Since 1963

This August, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow, presenting works that showcase the expansive range the dancers and choreographers have developed over the past six decades. The Company will perform Alvin Ailey’s seminal Revelations as well as Cry, originally choreographed for Judith Jamison as a tribute to Black women everywhere; Lar Lubovitch’s Many Angels; and Amy Hall Garner’s CENTURY, a rambunctious ode to the jazz and swing-era music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ray Charles, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. 

On the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, students from Ailey Extension’s open classes will perform Interim Artistic Director Matthew Rushing’s Sacred Songs: A Journey of the Spiritual. Rushing developed the work with these students, putting into practice AILEY’s creed that dance should be delivered back to the people.  

Additional AILEY programming at the Pillow will feature works by artists showcased in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent Edges of Ailey, the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate Alvin Ailey’s enduring legacy.  

Alvin Ailey began his close association with the Pillow in 1954 as a performer, choreographer, and acting director of the Lester Horton Dance Theatre, and he first brought his company here in 1959. He adapted Revelations from its original form for Pillow performances in 1961, and this landmark work—which has been internationally celebrated ever since—will be part of the Company’s mixed program this summer.