This summer, June 5-8, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (AAADT) returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with a program that includes a world premiere from renowned choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in collaboration with two outstanding Ailey dancers, Samantha Figgins and Chalvar Monteiro. The program also features Elisa Monte’s “Treading,” a mesmerizing duet set to music by Steve Reich, Ronald K. Brown’s “Grace,” a spellbinding dance journey to the promised land, and Alvin Ailey’s timeless masterpiece “Revelations.” The AAADT’s long-standing relationship with BAM dates back to 1969 when the trailblazing choreographer established The Ailey School in Brooklyn and presented his company’s first BAM performances.
The summer program is part of the AAADT’s 2024-2025 season celebrating the life and legacy of Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison, and includes works that highlight both Ailey’s and Jamison’s genius and generosity. For instance, Zollar, who recently completed 40 years at the helm of Urban Bush Women and is Ailey’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence, was first introduced to Ailey audiences during the company’s 1992 season when Jamison asked her to stage “Shelter,” her outstanding and poignant dance about the homeless. Since then, Zollar has had other works mounted on the Ailey company, and this year is creating “The Holy Blues” in collaboration with two brilliant longtime AAADT dancers Figgins and Monteiro.
“The Holy Blues” is inspired by the Ring Shout (the circular dance originating from Central and West Africa) and The Door of No Return (the final point of departure of enslaved Africans kidnapped and transported across what scholar Paul Gilroy calls the Black Atlantic), which serve as both metaphors and memories of the lived experience of past generations. Zollar points to Dionne Brand’s book ”A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging,” which states, “This door is not mere physicality. It is a spiritual location. It is also perhaps a psychic destination. Since leaving was never voluntary, return was, and still may be, an intention, however deeply buried. There is, as it says, no way in; no return.”
In a recent interview with the AmNews, Zollar discussed the new work for Ailey, saying, “The title ‘The Holy Blues’ came from the Ailey exhibit at the Whitney Museum. There was a quote in one of Mr. Ailey’s journals where he talked about influences from the South and used this term ‘Holy Blues.’ I was intriguesd and looked it up and learned that there was this genre of music that was the bringing together of the sacred and the secular with the secular blues reentering through gospel music. In African American culture the sacred and the secular are intertwined. Then, there is also the idea of the rupture, the kidnapping of a people and the door of no return, which I have seen in Senegal. You understand that something happened, something powerful — the rupture that resulted in our creation or re-creation trying to find wholeness,” a healing. The Ring Shout, and the Holy Blues opened a door.
Zollar says that while her most recent works have been evening-length dances or performances pieces, she welcomed the opportunity to work with Samantha and Chalvar using her collaborative teamwork process to create a work for the Ailey rep. The team includes a dramaturge (Cheri Stokes) and Vincent Thomas, who is her assistant director. “I decided to look at my role as director, working with Chalvar and Samantha. They’re so talented,” Zollar says, adding that the two Ailey dancers have thrown themselves into her demanding creative process which includes research, discussion, experimentation, as well as storyboarding. “It’s the way I work now,” Zollar says. Together, this team explored ideas revolving around the Ring Shout, praise dancing, and the Holy Blues. Citing movement as a form of prayer, Zollar shared, “I’ve been interested in these different prayer states for a very long time …. Falling prayer is like you’re falling, you’re looking for direction. The fervent prayer state is when you’re pleading, asking over and over, ‘Lord, please help me, help me, please.’ Then you have what I call the Hallelujah, or the Holy Ghost prayer. It’s like you’re in the spirit.” At the heart of all of these forms of prayer is a powerful sense of community. “It’s the foundation of our recovery, our processing the initial rupture, that experience of being stolen,” Zollar says, explaining that the shouting in the Ring Shout is a form of testimony. “When I talk about testimony, it’s bearing witness to someone’s truth.”
The fact that Zollar can mount this type of work on the AAADT, she feels, is a testament to the beauty of the company that Alvin Ailey created and Judith Jamison sustained. “Mr. Ailey’s vision [was] that people could go from the dances found in the blues clubs to ballet, from Rennie Harris to Ron Brown to Wayne McGregor, and we know that companies like Philadanco and others are modeled on that same idea. I think the Ailey company is really special, and Mr. Ailey’s understanding that the dancing experience needed to be broad, big, and beautiful. For me, doing a work on the AAADT is like coming home. And in July, I start an Artist-in-Residence at Ailey.”
That breadth is reflected in a BAM program which, in addition to Zollar’s “Holy Blues,” includes Elisa Monte’s “Treading,” a sculptural, mesmerizing duet first performed at New York City Center in 1981, which the New York Times declared “gives lovers of fine dancing much to marvel at.” It is also brilliantly evident in Ronald K. Brown’s spellbinding “Grace,” the fervent tour-de-force depicting individuals on a journey to the promised land. As in many of Brown’s works, the movement alternates fluidly between extremes, with eruptions of power coupled with lightness. A serene solo for an angel-like figure in white gives way to fireball intensity, as 12 dancers resembling contemporary warriors who execute Brown’s whirling, pounding choreography — arms and legs slicing the air and fingers pointing to the sky.
Brown’s varied music choices closely reflect the heart of the work, with the spiritual grounding of Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” the contemporary yet timeless house music vibe of Peven Everett’s “Gabriel,” and the West African and African American traditions of Fela Kuti’s Afropop beats.
And, what would an AAADT program be without “Revelations.” Performed to spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs, and holy blues, Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations” fervently explores the places of deepest grief and holiest joy in the soul. More than just a popular dance work, it has become a cultural treasure, beloved by generations of fans. Seeing “Revelations” for the first time or the hundredth can be a transcendent experience, with audiences cheering, singing along, and dancing in their seats from the opening notes of the plaintive “I Been ’Buked” to the rousing “Wade in the Water” and the triumphant finale, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”
Mr. Ailey said that one of America’s richest treasures was the African American cultural heritage — “sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.” This enduring classic is a tribute to that tradition, born out of the choreographer’s “blood memories” of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church. Since its premiere in 1960, the ballet has been performed continuously around the globe, transcending barriers of faith and nationality, and appealing to universal emotions, making it the most widely seen modern dance work in the world. This summer’s BAM program will take audiences on a rich spiritual journey. For more info, visit ailey.org and bam.org/ailey.