With faculty mentorship, the dancers of the class of 2025 produce, choreograph, and perform in Senior Production, while dancers from the class of 2026 serve as stage managers, lighting designers, and dancers.

By Nilo Cruz
Kathleen Capdesuñer, Director

Set in Cuba during the political turmoil of the 1990s, Two Sisters and a Piano follows Sofia and Maria Celia as they navigate their personal desires in the face of the repressive forces around them. With rich, lyrical dialogue and emotional depth, Nilo Cruz crafts a hauntingly beautiful tale of love, art, resilience, and the search for freedom.

Know before you go! Read the digital program.

Jeffrey Milarsky, Music Director and Conductor
Sophia Werner, Violin
Pengxi Zhu, Viola

Liam CUMMINS Plea (World premiere, commissioned by Juilliard)
Sophia Werner, Violin

HINDEMITH Kammermusik No. 5 for viola and chamber orchestra
Pengxi Zhu, Viola

BOULEZ Dérive 2

Join us at 6:15pm in the Student Multipurpose Room (SMR) for a preconcert lecture, led by viola doctoral student Leslie Ashworth. For more details about this lecture and to learn more about Prelude, Juilliard's Preconcert Lecture Series, please visit juilliard.edu/prelude.

Know before you go! Read the digital program.

By Nilo Cruz
Kathleen Capdesuñer, Director

Set in Cuba during the political turmoil of the 1990s, Two Sisters and a Piano follows Sofia and Maria Celia as they navigate their personal desires in the face of the repressive forces around them. With rich, lyrical dialogue and emotional depth, Nilo Cruz crafts a hauntingly beautiful tale of love, art, resilience, and the search for freedom.

Know before you go! Read the digital program.

Music-driven theatre composed and performed by class participants

Fangzhou Ye, Piano

BEETHOVEN Allegro from Piano Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 14, No. 2
LISZT From Etudes d’exécution transcendante: No. 8, “Wilde Jagd”
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN Etude Op. 25, No. 9, “Butterfly”
LIGETI Etude No. 15, “White on White”
RACHMANINOFF Etude-tableau in D Minor, Op. 39, No. 8
LISZT From Deux Légendes: St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots
SCRIABIN Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53

Juilliard Orchestra
Matthew Aucoin (Arnhold Creative Associate), Conductor
Louisa Muller, Director

By Nilo Cruz
Kathleen Capdesuñer, Director

Set in Cuba during the political turmoil of the 1990s, Two Sisters and a Piano follows Sofia and Maria Celia as they navigate their personal desires in the face of the repressive forces around them. With rich, lyrical dialogue and emotional depth, Nilo Cruz crafts a hauntingly beautiful tale of love, art, resilience, and the search for freedom.

Know before you go! Read the digital program.

This recital spotlights the chamber music of Arnhold Creative Associate and alum Jessie Montgomery

Voodoo Dolls for string quartet (2008)

Rhapsody No. 1 for solo viola (2021)

Peace for clarinet and piano (2020)

In Color for tuba and string quartet (2014)

Musings for two violins (2023)

Concerto Grosso for oboe, harp, solo violin, and string quartet (2024)

New for the 2024-25 season, select events are available as Pay-What-You-Wish ticketing, allowing you to choose the ticket price that's right for you. When purchasing tickets online, you'll see a $1 base price during checkout and you'll have the opportunity to enter your preferred ticket price as a donation. Or visit the Box Office (155 W 65th St) to purchase in person, Tuesday-Friday, 11am-5pm.

Watch the performance on this page at the scheduled date and time. This performance won’t be available to stream afterward on demand. Should you have trouble accessing the stream via this page, please visit juilliard.live to stream this program.

Lead Digital Sponsor: Bloomberg Philanthropies

Juilliard LIVE was launched in 2021 under the leadership of President Damian Woetzel, dramatically expanding access for audiences around the world to Juilliard performances through livestreams and on-demand video. Juilliard LIVE streams nearly 700 performances each year, with new on-demand programs regularly added to the accessible library of content.

Juilliard Jazz Pianists:
Dabin Ryu
Holly Bean
Caelan Cardello
Jake Nalangan
Tyler Bullock II
William Schwartzman
Brandon Goldberg
José André Montaño

Watch the performance on this page at the scheduled date and time. This performance won’t be available to stream afterward on demand. Should you have trouble accessing the stream via this page, please visit juilliard.live to stream this program.

Lead Digital Sponsor: Bloomberg Philanthropies

Juilliard LIVE was launched in 2021 under the leadership of President Damian Woetzel, dramatically expanding access for audiences around the world to Juilliard performances through livestreams and on-demand video. Juilliard LIVE streams nearly 700 performances each year, with new on-demand programs regularly added to the accessible library of content.

Juilliard Orchestra
Ruth Reinhardt, Conductor
Gaeun Kim, Cello

Unsuk CHIN subito con forza
MARTINŮ Cello Concerto No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Watch the performance on this page at the scheduled date and time. This performance won’t be available to stream afterward on demand. Should you have trouble accessing the stream via this page, please visit juilliard.live to stream this program.

Lead Digital Sponsor: Bloomberg Philanthropies

Juilliard LIVE was launched in 2021 under the leadership of President Damian Woetzel, dramatically expanding access for audiences around the world to Juilliard performances through livestreams and on-demand video. Juilliard LIVE streams nearly 700 performances each year, with new on-demand programs regularly added to the accessible library of content.

Reflecting on the life, dances, influences, and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey as seen in the exhibition Edges of Ailey, this program brings together a constellation of artists, dancers, scholars, and poets to share meditations on Ailey’s transformative impact and enduring significance.  

Featuring: 

an opening performance by Kevin Beasley, an artist working in sculpture, performance art, and sound installation  

a special interlude by Jericho Brown, a poet, scholar, and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University

and tributes by: 

Horace Ballard, the Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Curator of American Art at Harvard Art Museums
Josh Begley and Kya Lou, artists and filmmakers
Malcolm X Betts, a visual and dance artist, and Nile Harris, a director and performer
Aimee Meredith Cox, a critical ethnographer, writer, and movement artist, who has performed and toured internationally with Ailey II and the Dance Theatre of Harlem  
Adrienne Edwards, the Engell Speyer Family Senior Curator and Associate Director of Curatorial Programs at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Brenda Dixon Gottschild, an author, scholar, dance historian, performer, and choreographer
Lyle Ashton Harris, a photographer and performance artist
Maren Hassinger, an artist and educator whose work ranges from sculpture, film, dance, and performance to public art
Ralph Lemon, a dancer, choreographer, and visual artist  
Joshua Lubin-Levy, scholar, dramaturg, and curator, and Director of the Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University
Matthew Rushing, a dancer, choreographer, and Interim Artistic Director at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. 

This event is free but registration is required. Seating will be first come, first served.   

Presented as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Whitney to present new works by Company veterans Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts. In Finding Free, Boykin along with composer and pianist Matthew Whitaker examine the challenges and restrictions throughout life’s peaks and valleys that propel the journey forward. This insightful work uses Boykin’s movement-language and Whitaker’s jazz- and gospel-influenced score to explore personal freedoms. For Al-Andalus Blues, Jamar Roberts journeys back in time to the Golden Age of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, evoking the north African Moors who inhabited the land prior to the Christian Reconquista. The music of Roberta Flack and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain sets the tone for this abstract ensemble piece. 

Program
Excerpts from Finding Free
Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpts from Finding Free
2024
Choreography by Hope Boykin
Music by Matthew Whitaker
Costumes by Jon Taylor

Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues (excerpts)
2024
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Miles Davis and Roberta Flack
Costumes by Jermaine Terry
Lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. Recognized as a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World," it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide. Having performed in more than seventy countries on six continents, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to bring joy to audiences everywhere while upholding Ailey’s legacy for future generations.

For all Black women everywhere – especially our mothers.

In 1971, Alvin Ailey choreographedCry as a birthday present for his mother. Created with the legendary Judith Jamison in mind, it went on to become an enduring work of American art.

Join us as we engage in conversation with preeminent artists who performed Cry during their tenure in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater under the artistic guidance of Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison. Listen to their experiences and memories of learning the work from Jamison who originated the role to legendary status. Hear about the process and profound impact of performing such a legacy work worldwide, the art of embodying this archetypal figure, and why the piece continues to stand out as an iconic work of art.

Excerpt from Cry
1971
Choreography by Alvin Ailey
Music by Alice Coltrane, Laura Nyro & Chuck Griffin
Costume by A. Christina Giannini
Lighting by Chenault Spence

“Something About John Coltrane” written by Alice Coltrane, published by Jawcol Music.

Cast:
Jacquelin Harris (Jan 24, 26)

Panelists:
Renee Robinson, Nasha Thomas (Jan 24)
Donna Wood-Sanders (Jan 26)
Moderator: Lakey Evans-Peña (Jan 24, Jan 26)

Renee Robinson began her training in classical ballet at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. She was the recipient of two Ford Foundation scholarships to the School of American Ballet and was awarded full scholarships to the Dance Theatre of Harlem School and The Ailey School, where she danced as a member of Ailey II. Robinson was a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1981 to 2012 during which time she performed principal roles in several of Ailey’s ballets including Revelations, Cry, Memoria, Blue Suite, and others. She danced in works choreographed by renowned choreographers such as Robert Battle, Judith Jamison, Lar Lubovitch, Ulysses Dove, Talley Beatty, Garth Fagan, Kyle Abraham, Ronald K. Brown, Elisa Monte, and Matthew Rushing. She is a Master Teaching Artist with Ailey Arts in Education and is a faculty member at Yale University teaching under the Dancer Studies Curriculum.

Nasha Thomas oversees AileyCamp and designs the national outreach for Ailey’s Arts In Education & Community Programs. As a primary liaison between the Ailey organization and the national arts-in-education community, she plays a central role in working with local communities to develop and run AileyCamp in cities across the U.S., as well as managing national residencies, leading workshops, and teaching master classes, helping Arts In Education reach over 100,000 people each year through education and community initiatives. A graduate of New York’s High School of the Performing Arts and Southern Methodist University, she received the prestigious Presidential Scholar of the Arts award. At the invitation of Alvin Ailey and later under the direction of Judith Jamison, Ms. Thomas danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1986 to 1998.  

Highlighted as one of Good Housekeeping’s “Humanitarians Who Are Our Heroes,” Ms. Thomas combines her passion for inspiring the next generation and personal experiences as a performer and Master Teacher to lead Ailey Arts In Education programs in public school classrooms across the country to the Lincoln Center Plaza and from Gracie Mansion to the White House, and more. In 2020, Ms. Thomas reached students across the world virtually as she helped kicked off the 60th anniversary of Alvin Ailey’s iconic Revelations with a social-distanced workshop streamed from the Rockefeller Center rooftop, with virtual programs for TED Discovery Series and Facebook, and was the lead instructor for the Revelations Virtual Dance Workshop Series, designed for middle school students blending dance with poetry, history, and music, which builds a foundation of artistic exploration that will enhance any students’ academic experience.

Born in New York City as the middle child of seven children, Donna Wood was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where she began studying dance with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company at the age of five. She trained extensively in ballet under Josephine Schwartz of the Dayton Ballet. Wood moved to New York in 1972 and joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in September of that year. Five years later, she became a leading dancer with the company, noted for her lyrical musicality, supple extensions, and strong, graceful jumps. Wood's performances in Ailey's "Memoria" (1979) and Todd Bolender's "The Still Point" (1954, revived 1980) propelled her to international recognition as a significant interpreter of dramatic dance roles. Her artistry was underscored by a quiet simplicity in performance, and in 1980 she told the New York Times, "I have learned never to force a movement, but to arrive at it naturally."

During the early 1980s Wood guest-starred with the Hamburg Ballet, the Vienna State Opera, and the Royal Danish Ballet. In 1985 she left the Ailey company, and took a two-year faculty appointment at CalArts of Valencia, Calif. In 1987 she starred in a production of "Sophisticated Ladies," which toured the Soviet Union and Japan. Three years later Wood retired from performing and married attorney Peter Michael Sanders. In 1991 she and Sanders created the Donna Wood Foundation, "to assist young dancers as they are embarking on careers, giving advice on additional education and skill development" necessary to survival in the dance world.

Lakey Evans-Peña is an educator, director, and creative leader. Currently she serves as the Associate Director of the Ailey Horton Teacher Certification program. In this role, she integrates her professional performance, teaching and artistic practice in co-authoring the new 32-week Ailey Teacher Certification Program: Ailey Horton Technique.

Evans-Peña received her BFA from the University of the Arts, her MFA from Montclair State University, and was a scholarship recipient at The Ailey School. As a pedagogue and movement maker, Evans-Peña centers individual and collective empowerment through her teaching and creative practices. Her thesis work, Lineage and Legacy of Horton Through The Ailey Lens, Then and Now, examines the ideologies of cultural relevance, equity, and inclusion through the Horton/Ailey lineage, as well as exploring the historical and contextual framework of the Horton technique at The Ailey School. In 2020 she restaged and performed Lester Horton’s The Beloved in Roots & Routes, her self-produced evening length work. In addition to her recent writing work, she moderated a panel for the Library of Congress "Anna Sokolow and the Reimagined Roots of Antifascist Dance" and co-presented an experiential workshop at the National Dance Education Organization's conference in Bellevue, WA.

As an artistic coach and creative leader, she served as assistant to Ronni Favors for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s New York City Center production of Memoria, as well as for the American Dance Festival. In her role as Ailey II’s rehearsal director, she has overseen works by Alvin Ailey, William Forsythe, Francesca Harper, Andrea Miller, Robert Battle, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, and Yannick LeBrun. For more than a decade she has served as an adjudicator for the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, the Certificate Program, and the Summer Intensive.

Ms. Evans-Peña founded and served as the executive and artistic director of the Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center in Brooklyn from 2009-21. In 2015, she co-curated, co-produced, and presented a performance series providing rehearsal and performance space for choreographers at different stages of their careers to present their work. Expanding additional opportunities for equitable arts education, Evans-Peña additionally founded WMAAC Residencies (now renamed WRArts), a 501(c)3 organization which continues to offer a rich array of creative arts community programming. She served as president until 2017.

Presented as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Whitney to present new works by Company veterans Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts. In Finding Free, Boykin along with composer and pianist Matthew Whitaker examine the challenges and restrictions throughout life’s peaks and valleys that propel the journey forward. This insightful work uses Boykin’s movement-language and Whitaker’s jazz- and gospel-influenced score to explore personal freedoms. For Al-Andalus Blues, Jamar Roberts journeys back in time to the Golden Age of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, evoking the north African Moors who inhabited the land prior to the Christian Reconquista. The music of Roberta Flack and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain sets the tone for this abstract ensemble piece. 

Program
Excerpts from Finding Free
Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpts from Finding Free
2024
Choreography by Hope Boykin
Music by Matthew Whitaker
Costumes by Jon Taylor

Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues (excerpts)
2024
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Miles Davis and Roberta Flack
Costumes by Jermaine Terry
Lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. Recognized as a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World," it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide. Having performed in more than seventy countries on six continents, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to bring joy to audiences everywhere while upholding Ailey’s legacy for future generations.

Ailey II is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best early-career dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding and emerging choreographers. The performance opens with an excerpt from Divining, a dance by Judith Jamison set to a score of North African, Central African, and Latin rhythms. This piece builds on African dance idioms to create a striking, pulsating modern dance work. Divining is followed by excerpts from three classic works by Alvin Ailey, beginning with his first masterpiece, Blues Suite, which poignantly evokes the sorrow, humor, and humanity of the blues—those heartfelt songs that Ailey called “hymns to the secular regions of the soul.” Lark Ascending seamlessly fuses ballet and modern vocabularies to display the dancers’ technical abilities in both disciplines and has entranced audiences for years. The performance closes with the formal, meditative mood of Streams. The dance evokes images and sensations inspired by various bodies of water—from gentle brooks to turbulent oceans—that correlate to the changing tides within us.

Program
Excerpt from Divining
Excerpts from Blues Suite
Excerpt from Lark Ascending
Excerpts from Streams 

Presented as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Whitney to present new works by Company veterans Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts. In Finding Free, Boykin along with composer and pianist Matthew Whitaker examine the challenges and restrictions throughout life’s peaks and valleys that propel the journey forward. This insightful work uses Boykin’s movement-language and Whitaker’s jazz- and gospel-influenced score to explore personal freedoms. For Al-Andalus Blues, Jamar Roberts journeys back in time to the Golden Age of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, evoking the north African Moors who inhabited the land prior to the Christian Reconquista. The music of Roberta Flack and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain sets the tone for this abstract ensemble piece. 

Program
Excerpts from Finding Free
Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpts from Finding Free
2024
Choreography by Hope Boykin
Music by Matthew Whitaker
Costumes by Jon Taylor

Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues (excerpts)
2024
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Miles Davis and Roberta Flack
Costumes by Jermaine Terry
Lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. Recognized as a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World," it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide. Having performed in more than seventy countries on six continents, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to bring joy to audiences everywhere while upholding Ailey’s legacy for future generations.

Presented as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Whitney to present new works by Company veterans Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts. In Finding Free, Boykin along with composer and pianist Matthew Whitaker examine the challenges and restrictions throughout life’s peaks and valleys that propel the journey forward. This insightful work uses Boykin’s movement-language and Whitaker’s jazz- and gospel-influenced score to explore personal freedoms. For Al-Andalus Blues, Jamar Roberts journeys back in time to the Golden Age of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, evoking the north African Moors who inhabited the land prior to the Christian Reconquista. The music of Roberta Flack and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain sets the tone for this abstract ensemble piece. 

Program
Excerpts from Finding Free
Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpts from Finding Free
2024
Choreography by Hope Boykin
Music by Matthew Whitaker
Costumes by Jon Taylor

Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues (excerpts)
2024
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Miles Davis and Roberta Flack
Costumes by Jermaine Terry
Lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. Recognized as a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World," it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide. Having performed in more than seventy countries on six continents, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to bring joy to audiences everywhere while upholding Ailey’s legacy for future generations.

Ailey II is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best early-career dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding and emerging choreographers. The performance opens with an excerpt from Divining, a dance by Judith Jamison set to a score of North African, Central African, and Latin rhythms. This piece builds on African dance idioms to create a striking, pulsating modern dance work. Divining is followed by excerpts from three classic works by Alvin Ailey, beginning with his first masterpiece, Blues Suite, which poignantly evokes the sorrow, humor, and humanity of the blues—those heartfelt songs that Ailey called “hymns to the secular regions of the soul.” Lark Ascending seamlessly fuses ballet and modern vocabularies to display the dancers’ technical abilities in both disciplines and has entranced audiences for years. The performance closes with the formal, meditative mood of Streams. The dance evokes images and sensations inspired by various bodies of water—from gentle brooks to turbulent oceans—that correlate to the changing tides within us.

Program
Excerpt from Divining
Excerpts from Blues Suite
Excerpt from Lark Ascending
Excerpts from Streams 

Presented as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Whitney to present new works by Company veterans Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts. In Finding Free, Boykin along with composer and pianist Matthew Whitaker examine the challenges and restrictions throughout life’s peaks and valleys that propel the journey forward. This insightful work uses Boykin’s movement-language and Whitaker’s jazz- and gospel-influenced score to explore personal freedoms. For Al-Andalus Blues, Jamar Roberts journeys back in time to the Golden Age of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, evoking the north African Moors who inhabited the land prior to the Christian Reconquista. The music of Roberta Flack and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain sets the tone for this abstract ensemble piece. 

Program
Excerpts from Finding Free
Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpts from Finding Free
2024
Choreography by Hope Boykin
Music by Matthew Whitaker
Costumes by Jon Taylor

Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues (excerpts)
2024
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Miles Davis and Roberta Flack
Costumes by Jermaine Terry
Lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. Recognized as a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World," it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide. Having performed in more than seventy countries on six continents, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to bring joy to audiences everywhere while upholding Ailey’s legacy for future generations.

Presented as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Whitney to present new works by Company veterans Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts. In Finding Free, Boykin along with composer and pianist Matthew Whitaker examine the challenges and restrictions throughout life’s peaks and valleys that propel the journey forward. This insightful work uses Boykin’s movement-language and Whitaker’s jazz- and gospel-influenced score to explore personal freedoms. For Al-Andalus Blues, Jamar Roberts journeys back in time to the Golden Age of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, evoking the north African Moors who inhabited the land prior to the Christian Reconquista. The music of Roberta Flack and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain sets the tone for this abstract ensemble piece. 

Program
Excerpts from Finding Free
Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpts from Finding Free
2024
Choreography by Hope Boykin
Music by Matthew Whitaker
Costumes by Jon Taylor

Excerpts from Al-Andalus Blues (excerpts)
2024
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Miles Davis and Roberta Flack
Costumes by Jermaine Terry
Lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
Founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958 and forged during a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater uplifts the African American experience while transcending boundaries of race, faith, and nationality with its universal humanity. Recognized as a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World," it is one of the most acclaimed dance companies worldwide. Having performed in more than seventy countries on six continents, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to bring joy to audiences everywhere while upholding Ailey’s legacy for future generations.

Floor 3, Theater

For all Black women everywhere – especially our mothers.

In 1971, Alvin Ailey choreographed Cry as a birthday present for his mother. Created with the legendary Judith Jamison in mind, it went on to become an enduring work of American art.

Join us as we engage in conversation with preeminent artists who performed Cry during their tenure in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater under the artistic guidance of Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison. Listen to their experiences and memories of learning the work from Jamison who originated the role to legendary status. Hear about the process and profound impact of performing such a legacy work worldwide, the art of embodying this archetypal figure, and why the piece continues to stand out as an iconic work of art.

Excerpt from Cry
1971
Choreography by Alvin Ailey
Music by Alice Coltrane, Laura Nyro & Chuck Griffin
Costume by A. Christina Giannini
Lighting by Chenault Spence

“Something About John Coltrane” written by Alice Coltrane, published by Jawcol Music.

Cast:
Jacquelin Harris (Jan 24, 26)

Panelists:
Renee Robinson, Nasha Thomas (Jan 24)
Donna Wood-Sanders (Jan 26)
Moderator: Lakey Evans-Peña (Jan 24, Jan 26)

Renee Robinson began her training in classical ballet at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. She was the recipient of two Ford Foundation scholarships to the School of American Ballet and was awarded full scholarships to the Dance Theatre of Harlem School and The Ailey School, where she danced as a member of Ailey II. Robinson was a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1981 to 2012 during which time she performed principal roles in several of Ailey’s ballets including Revelations, Cry, Memoria, Blue Suite, and others. She danced in works choreographed by renowned choreographers such as Robert Battle, Judith Jamison, Lar Lubovitch, Ulysses Dove, Talley Beatty, Garth Fagan, Kyle Abraham, Ronald K. Brown, Elisa Monte, and Matthew Rushing. She is a Master Teaching Artist with Ailey Arts in Education and is a faculty member at Yale University teaching under the Dancer Studies Curriculum.

Nasha Thomas oversees AileyCamp and designs the national outreach for Ailey’s Arts In Education & Community Programs. As a primary liaison between the Ailey organization and the national arts-in-education community, she plays a central role in working with local communities to develop and run AileyCamp in cities across the U.S., as well as managing national residencies, leading workshops, and teaching master classes, helping Arts In Education reach over 100,000 people each year through education and community initiatives. A graduate of New York’s High School of the Performing Arts and Southern Methodist University, she received the prestigious Presidential Scholar of the Arts award. At the invitation of Alvin Ailey and later under the direction of Judith Jamison, Ms. Thomas danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1986 to 1998.  

Highlighted as one of Good Housekeeping’s “Humanitarians Who Are Our Heroes,” Ms. Thomas combines her passion for inspiring the next generation and personal experiences as a performer and Master Teacher to lead Ailey Arts In Education programs in public school classrooms across the country to the Lincoln Center Plaza and from Gracie Mansion to the White House, and more. In 2020, Ms. Thomas reached students across the world virtually as she helped kicked off the 60th anniversary of Alvin Ailey’s iconic Revelations with a social-distanced workshop streamed from the Rockefeller Center rooftop, with virtual programs for TED Discovery Series and Facebook, and was the lead instructor for the Revelations Virtual Dance Workshop Series, designed for middle school students blending dance with poetry, history, and music, which builds a foundation of artistic exploration that will enhance any students’ academic experience.

Born in New York City as the middle child of seven children, Donna Wood was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where she began studying dance with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company at the age of five. She trained extensively in ballet under Josephine Schwartz of the Dayton Ballet. Wood moved to New York in 1972 and joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in September of that year. Five years later, she became a leading dancer with the company, noted for her lyrical musicality, supple extensions, and strong, graceful jumps. Wood's performances in Ailey's "Memoria" (1979) and Todd Bolender's "The Still Point" (1954, revived 1980) propelled her to international recognition as a significant interpreter of dramatic dance roles. Her artistry was underscored by a quiet simplicity in performance, and in 1980 she told the New York Times, "I have learned never to force a movement, but to arrive at it naturally."

During the early 1980s Wood guest-starred with the Hamburg Ballet, the Vienna State Opera, and the Royal Danish Ballet. In 1985 she left the Ailey company, and took a two-year faculty appointment at CalArts of Valencia, Calif. In 1987 she starred in a production of "Sophisticated Ladies," which toured the Soviet Union and Japan. Three years later Wood retired from performing and married attorney Peter Michael Sanders. In 1991 she and Sanders created the Donna Wood Foundation, "to assist young dancers as they are embarking on careers, giving advice on additional education and skill development" necessary to survival in the dance world.

Lakey Evans-Peña is an educator, director, and creative leader. Currently she serves as the Associate Director of the Ailey Horton Teacher Certification program. In this role, she integrates her professional performance, teaching and artistic practice in co-authoring the new 32-week Ailey Teacher Certification Program: Ailey Horton Technique.

Evans-Peña received her BFA from the University of the Arts, her MFA from Montclair State University, and was a scholarship recipient at The Ailey School. As a pedagogue and movement maker, Evans-Peña centers individual and collective empowerment through her teaching and creative practices. Her thesis work, Lineage and Legacy of Horton Through The Ailey Lens, Then and Now, examines the ideologies of cultural relevance, equity, and inclusion through the Horton/Ailey lineage, as well as exploring the historical and contextual framework of the Horton technique at The Ailey School. In 2020 she restaged and performed Lester Horton’s The Beloved in Roots & Routes, her self-produced evening length work. In addition to her recent writing work, she moderated a panel for the Library of Congress "Anna Sokolow and the Reimagined Roots of Antifascist Dance" and co-presented an experiential workshop at the National Dance Education Organization's conference in Bellevue, WA.

As an artistic coach and creative leader, she served as assistant to Ronni Favors for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s New York City Center production of Memoria, as well as for the American Dance Festival. In her role as Ailey II’s rehearsal director, she has overseen works by Alvin Ailey, William Forsythe, Francesca Harper, Andrea Miller, Robert Battle, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, and Yannick LeBrun. For more than a decade she has served as an adjudicator for the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, the Certificate Program, and the Summer Intensive.

Ms. Evans-Peña founded and served as the executive and artistic director of the Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center in Brooklyn from 2009-21. In 2015, she co-curated, co-produced, and presented a performance series providing rehearsal and performance space for choreographers at different stages of their careers to present their work. Expanding additional opportunities for equitable arts education, Evans-Peña additionally founded WMAAC Residencies (now renamed WRArts), a 501(c)3 organization which continues to offer a rich array of creative arts community programming. She served as president until 2017.

Ailey II is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best early-career dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding and emerging choreographers. The performance opens with an excerpt from Divining, a dance by Judith Jamison set to a score of North African, Central African, and Latin rhythms. This piece builds on African dance idioms to create a striking, pulsating modern dance work. Divining is followed by excerpts from three classic works by Alvin Ailey, beginning with his first masterpiece, Blues Suite, which poignantly evokes the sorrow, humor, and humanity of the blues—those heartfelt songs that Ailey called “hymns to the secular regions of the soul.” Lark Ascending seamlessly fuses ballet and modern vocabularies to display the dancers’ technical abilities in both disciplines and has entranced audiences for years. The performance closes with the formal, meditative mood of Streams. The dance evokes images and sensations inspired by various bodies of water—from gentle brooks to turbulent oceans—that correlate to the changing tides within us.

Program
Excerpt from Divining
Excerpts from Blues Suite
Excerpt from Lark Ascending
Excerpts from Streams 

Program
Promised Land by Avree Walker
Excerpt from I See You by Earl Mosley
Arrive by Norbert De La Cruz

Runtime is approximately 30 minutes.

Promised Land
Choreography by Avree Walker
Music by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Dancers: Jada Ammons, Adele Billotte, Kyra Blevins, Tahiry Hachet, Addison Hill, Kabria Holland, Justice Jackson, Yasir Jones, Fuka Kojima, Gian Narayassamy, Gwen Ontiveros, Torries Owens, Lena Psalms, Kaleb Smith, Elena Tawa, Tobi Twombley, Rachel Zisk

Excerpt from I See You
Choreography by Earl Mosley
Music by Art of Noise
Dancers: Jada Ammons, Adele Billotte, Kyra Blevins, Tahiry Hachet, Addison Hill, Kabria Holland, Justice Jackson, Yasir Jones, Fuka Kojima, Gian Narayassamy, Gwen Ontiveros, Torries Owens, Lena Psalms, Kaleb Smith, Elena Tawa, Tobi Twombley, Rachel Zisk

Arrive
Choreography by Norbert De La Cruz
Music by Shigeru Umebayashi (Yumeji’s Theme) and Oliver Davis (Flight – Concerto for Violin & Strings: III and Voyager Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Strings: II)
Dancers: Jada Ammons, Adele Billotte, Kyra Blevins, Tahiry Hachet, Addison Hill, Kabria Holland, Justice Jackson, Yasir Jones, Fuka Kojima, Gian Narayassamy, Gwen Ontiveros, Torries Owens, Lena Psalms, Kaleb Smith, Elena Tawa, Tobi Twombley, Rachel Zisk

Ailey Student Performance Group
Jada Ammons
Adele Billotte
Kyra Blevins
Tahiry Hachet
Addison Hill
Kabria Holland
Justice Jackson
Yasir Jones
Fuka Kojima
Gian Narayassamy
Gwen Ontiveros
Torries Owens
Lena Psalms
Kaleb Smith
Elena Tawa
Tobi Twombley
Rachel Zisk

About the Ailey Student Performance Group
The Ailey Student Performance Group wows audiences at venues throughout the Tri-State area, performing an exciting repertory of works from emerging and established choreographers. The dancers come from all corners of the world to train and perfect their craft in the Ailey style of dance, which incorporates multiple techniques, including ballet, Horton, Graham-based modern, jazz, West African, Dunham technique, and hip hop. Led by Rehearsal Director Freddie Moore, the dancers are given the opportunity to share Alvin Ailey’s vision through valuable professional performance experience.

The Ailey School
The Ailey School is the official school of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, offering students ages three to twenty-five a comprehensive dance education in an inclusive and nurturing environment. Founded in 1969 in Brooklyn, New York, the School has grown into a world-class educational institution housed in the bright studios of The Joan Weill Center for Dance, the largest center for dance in New York City. The Ailey School’s programs offer the highest caliber of multidisciplinary training while encouraging students to explore their own creative voice, preparing them for diverse and fulfilling careers in dance and beyond. 

Program information:

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Juilliard Jazz Orchestra
Shamie Royston, Guest Conductor

Saxophones
Miriam Goroff-Behel, Lead Alto
Adam Stein
Gustavo Cruz, Lead Tenor
Daniel Cohen
Sion Song, Baritone

Trumpets
Preston Rupert, Lead
Miles Keingstein
Ace Williams
Jack Towse

Trombones
Grace Rock, Lead
Luke Ramee
Nick Mesler
Luciano Soriano

Voice
Kate Kortum
Ava Preston
Julia Smulson

Rhythm
Jake Nalangan, Piano
Pedro Sequeira, Vibraphone
Edwin Corne, Guitar
Daniel Song, Bass
Anton Kot, Drums

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Juilliard's annual lecture celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sarah Lewis, the founder of Vision & Justice, is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and an associate professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America (Harvard University Press), the bestselling The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery (Simon & Schuster), and the forthcoming Vision & Justice (One World/Random House). Lewis is the editor of the award-winning Vision & Justice issue of Aperture magazine as well as an anthology on the work of Carrie Mae Weems (MIT Press). Lewis is the organizer of the landmark Vision & Justice Convening at Harvard University and co-editor of the Vision & Justice Book Series, launched in partnership with Aperture. Her awards include the Infinity Award, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Cullman Fellowship, the Freedom Scholar Award (ASALH), the Arthur Danto/ASA Prize from the American Philosophical Association, and the Photography Network Book Prize. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times, Artforum, and the New York Review of Books, and her work has been the subject of profiles from the Boston Globe to the New York Times. Lewis is a sought-after public speaker, with a mainstage TED talk that received more than three million views. She received a BA from Harvard University, an MPhil from Oxford University, an MA from Courtauld Institute of Art, and a PhD from Yale University. She lives in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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