Written by Liz Ernst for Guide for the Arts
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Judith Jamison: 45 Years of Alvin Ailey Dance Tradition
To witness Judith Jamison perform is to invite mythical comparisons to Aphrodite, Diana, Venus. Her fluid movements, her elegant mien and ability to embrace an audience in one gesture have earned her (among many others) the title "Ebony Goddess."
Over the past 45 years, Jamison has evolved from protégé-turned-star of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to its artistic director and New York dance icon. Discovered by Ailey himself at a time when the American perception of the ballerina was white and waif like, Jamison's sculpted ebony presence redefined the world's perception of American dance.
It is impossible to say whether it was the times that shaped Jamison as a dancer, or Jamison herself that shaped a new interpretation of dance in the 1970s. Ailey had started his Harlem-based studio in 1958 to provide black dancers with a home in the predominantly white arena that was American dance theater at the time, and brought Jamison on board in 1965.
Ailey choreographed a scorching solo for the young Jamison in 1971, "Cry" became Jamison's defining performance, despite the fact that she would deliver unforgettable performances in dozens of other Ailey works over the years.
Jamison’s rise to stardom was unprecedented. At a time when America was still struggling with racial inequality, a time when black performers remained relegated to handfuls of small supporting roles, here came a towering, full-bodied and ebullient young dancer, a classically trained black ballerina whose mere presence commanded everyone's attention. Ailey's protégé swept the dance world off its feet with an effortlessness so palpable; it seemed like the fulfillment of something long-planned.
Jamison's art could not be measured in her striking appearance alone, nor could her talents as a dancer be isolated as the source of her success. Jamison's performances were always a complete fusion of body and soul. Her signature long, sweeping movements, her intrinsic musical agility and insuppressible energy all combined to commit performances so extraordinary, even the artist herself seemed to be experiencing her own gifts through a higher power.
Now 67, Jamison has been at the helm of the Ailey organization since the founder's death in 1989. Still every inch the towering figure that once commandeered the stage, she has spent the past 21 years overseeing an expanding Arts dynasty that includes the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center School and the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble.
Among her proudest accomplishments as artistic director of the Ailey Dance Theater is the role she played in assisting with fundraising to construct of the $54 million, 77,000-square-foot Joan Weill Center for Dance, the Ailey Company's newest home, which Jamison lovingly refers to as "My glass palace."
"We were bursting at the seams in our old facility," Jamison says of the West 61st Street rented building that housed the group.
Paid for by a gift from New York Philanthropists Sandy and Joan Weill, with matching funds from the City, the Joan Weill facility opened in 2005 as a testament to Ailey's significance in the cultural fabric of New York City, as well as Jamison's dedication to the company's future.
The eight-floor building located in Manhattan’s Special Clinton District at 9th Avenue and 55th Street includes 12 dance studios, a 5,000 square foot performance space with flexible seating for 255, a library, costume shop, physical therapy facilities, lounges and administrative offices.
Poised to retire from her position as director in January 2011, Jamison is hardly retiring from dance and plans to remain busy behind the scenes in her glass palace. Named the 2010-2011 New York City Ambassador of the Arts by Guide for the Arts, Jamison remains a force in the Manhattan Arts scene, and a global torchbearer for Ailey’s vision.
Although her charmed life seems a far cry from the modest blue-collar upbringing she had in Philadelphia, Jamison retains the strong belief in God with which she was raised and still revels in the fact that the pigeon-toed daughter of a sheet metal worker father and homemaker mother could achieve the level of success she has.
"This is a gift," Jamison says of the life she leads. "I have always had a sense that God is taking care of me."
Ailey, raised in a one-room Texas shack by a mother who took in laundry and picked cotton to put food on the table, grew into the man who would forever shape Jamison's life, even after his death. The two are inextricably entwined. It is impossible to imagine what form the present day Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater group would take today had Ailey and Jamison never met.
As a student at the Philadelphia Dance Academy in 1964, Jamison was invited by renowned choreographer Agnes DeMille to join America Ballet Theater to create a role in DeMille's newest work,"The Four Marys."
The ballet told the story of a white man who falls in love with one of four slaves belonging to his fiancé (the "Marys," performed by four black dancers). Even at 20-years-old, Jamison's performance was described as "magnetic, flowing and strong."
However, at the close of “The Four Marys,” Jamison no longer had a place in American ballet theater, although she says she never felt like she would be shut out.
It was during the months after "The Four Marys" ended that Jamison took a summer job and a break from dance. When an audition with Donald McKayle came up, she was there, ready to get back on stage, but the audition went badly. In her hurry to leave the studio, a dejected Jamison did not realize she had brushed shoulders with Alvin Ailey as they passed each other in the hallway.
Luckily, Ailey remembered and called Jamison two days later and invited her to join his company. Without hesitating, she began a journey that would ultimately define her life. While Jamison was not Ailey’s only muse, she was certainly his favorite.
Although "Cry" would remain the defining performance of her career, Ailey created other works for Jamison, notably the vampy “The Mooche” and “Pas de Duke,” set to the music of Duke Ellington, a special-occasion piece that she performed with Mikhail Baryshnikov. During this time, other choreographers clamored to work with her including the renowned John Butler, Belgium’s Maurice Bejart, and the Hamburg Ballet’s John Neumeier.
In 1980, after 15 years in the company, she left Ailey to star on Broadway in “Sophisticated Ladies,” then formed her own group called the Jamison Project, an outlet to pursue her own choreography. In the mid 1980s, Ailey was diagnosed with AIDS; when his illness progressed, Jamison returned to the company and assumed artistic control upon his death.
Jamison has etched her own mark on the company in the years since Ailey's death, hiring young virtuosos, elevating women to key positions and seeking out cutting-edge choreography by such talents as the Urban Bush Women’s Jawole Willa Jo Zolar and Ronald K. Brown.
Jamison's passion for the Arts and their role in the life she leads is evident in her face, her voice, and of all places on her i-pod. Ready to end a recent interview in order to get to another appointment at the Weill Center, Jamison mustered a second wind when asked what was on her iPod.
"I love so many different kinds of music," Jamison says as she begins scrolling her menu. "Beyonce, Moby, Outkast, Lenny Kravitz. Pavarotti, Mahalia Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, and Mahler. And that just scratches the surface."
Such an eclectic musical menu should come as no surprise from a woman who has spent a lifetime surprising.
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