[Nov. 9, 2024 — The Amsterdam News was saddened to hear of the passing of dance luminary Judith Jamison, whose death was announced earlier today by Christopher Zunner, an Ailey spokesperson. Her contribution to the world of dance is beyond measure. The interview below originally ran in June of 2010.]
Our dance community and our dance history are incredibly rich, and those who have achieved the highest levels of success in this often-difficult discipline deserve considerable attention. This series, “Dance: Legends and Legacies,” is presented with our dance icons and their legacies in mind. A series of questions have been developed for both our legends and their chosen legacies. We hope to either introduce or remind our readers about who these legacies are, what they have done and what they continue to do to maintain the continuum we call the Black tradition in dance. This fourth article in the series celebrates Judith Jamison, Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Originally from Philadelphia, Judith Jamison was discovered by Agnes de Mille and made her New York debut with American Ballet Theatre in 1964. Beginning in 1965, she danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) for 15 years to great acclaim. Recognizing her extraordinary talent, Mr. Ailey created some of his most enduring roles for her, most notably the tour de force solo, Cry, and Pas de Duke, a spirited duet with Mikhail Baryshnikov to the music of Duke Ellington. Judith Jamison broke through racial barriers in the 1970s to become internationally recognized in the dance world and was the first female African American artist to appear on the cover of Dance Magazine.
After leaving the Company in 1980, Ms. Jamison appeared as a guest artist with ballet companies around the world, starred in the hit Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies, and founded her own company, The Jamison Project. Judith Jamison was invited by Mr. Ailey to lead the Company before his untimely death in 1989, and she became one of only a handful of women in the world to direct a major dance company. One of the most renowned figures in modern dance and a cultural icon, she has guided the Ailey organization into a permanent home in New York City — the nation’s largest building for dance — and to groundbreaking performances during two Olympics, at President Clinton’s inauguration and in unprecedented engagements in South Africa, Russia and Paris. Ms. Jamison recently led the Company on a 50-city global tour celebrating AAADT’s 50th anniversary with a yearlong series of special performances, collaborations (including Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sweet Honey In The Rock), events, projects and commemorative merchandise such as Ailey Hallmark Cards, Ailey Movado Timepiece, Ailey Ascending photographic art book and an Ailey Barbie Doll by Mattel (designed by Ms. Jamison, it was the first Barbie inspired by a dance company).
In her 20 years as Artistic Director, Judith Jamison has choreographed 10 ballets, commissioned 20 Company premieres, 32 new productions and 38 world premieres by choreographers including Ronald K. Brown, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Dwight Rhoden, Alonzo King, Robert Battle, among many others. The New York Times proclaimed, “The America we see in the Ailey repertory is a ‘Yes we can’ vision …” and noted that “applause levels are always high.”
Ms. Jamison is an author whose autobiography, Dancing Spirit, was edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and published by Doubleday in 1993. Dedicated to asserting the prominence of the arts in our culture, Ms. Jamison is a 2009 TIME 100 Honoree and a recipient of a primetime Emmy Award, a Bessie Award, the 2009 BET Honors for Education, Capezio Award, Dance Magazine Award and the Kennedy Center Honors, in recognition of her lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. She has received honorary degrees from, among many others, Brown, Columbia, Howard, The Julliard School and Yale. In 2010, Jamison’s costume from Alvin Ailey’s The Mooche (1975) was added to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and she received the 2010 Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award, presented annually to an individual who has given exceptional time and energy to artists and the arts.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 2010 performances at Brooklyn Academy of Music from June 10-20 culminate a 20-City U.S. Tour celebrating Judith Jamison on her 20th Year as Artistic Director. Her two decades of visionary leadership have carried the Ailey organization to new heights.
AMSTERDAM NEWS (AM): What do you believe constitutes a legend?
JUDITH JAMISON (JJ): Years ago, in the ‘70s, [she laughs] it was the person wearing the mink. Movies stars and other celebrities like Judy Garland. Now its people like Lena Horne who had intelligence, artistry, inner beauty and was just generational. When I was growing up I saw her in films and on TV as this beautiful Black woman with dignity, and a sense of being. She was accessible; she was a people person. Later, I saw her on the cover of Ebony and Jet magazines. She was also on Broadway in “Jamaica” with Alvin [Ailey]. She was a huge fan of Alvin’s company, and eventually of me. A legend then is what being a good person is about, there is more power if they entertain — then we call them a legend.
AM: How has and does race figure into your dance life?
JJ: Race plays a great part. It is positive, and it is also negative. Internationally, Black people come in many hues, and one of the glory of the tradition of the Ailey doors is that it is open to everybody — the paradigm. Ailey transcended the idea of race.
AM: What is different in the world of dance now and then?
JJ: It is very important that dance be accessible to everyone. When I go to every floor of this organization I see everybody. Accessibility to all this glass does not come by way of the color of someone’s skin, body type and all that nonsense — we have a welcome mat. When we go back and follow the legacy, we know that it was Black people like Ailey, Carmen DeLavallade, Peal Primus, James Truitte, Katherine Dunham and many others that laid the ground work for us to be able to be in this glass palace. Today, in every little corner of this glass palace, people have opportunities that they never thought they would.
AM: Who do you believe best represents your legacy?
JJ: Anybody that walks in these doors. All the people that work here, that’s my legacy; the legacy is something bigger than one person. I didn’t do any of this by myself. Yes, I steer a ship, but anything that has grown since Ailey passed, is because I’ve expanded on his legacy — I watered the plant.
AM: What’s next? Are there performances coming up?
JJ: Wouldn’t you like to know [she offers with a great laugh]. I’m just looking around. I’m so excited that the Board accepted my choice for Robert Battle as the incoming artistic director. AAADT will be at BAM from June 10 — 20 [Jamison’s last role as artistic director] and Robert will be with me the whole time. I never had that space before, so it’s going to be interesting.
For more information on AAADT’s upcoming performance at BAM visit www.alvinailey.org.
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