Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, one of the world’s most popular dance companies, will return to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Mother’s Day Weekend, Friday-Sunday, May 9-11 as the final stop on its coast-to-coast 2025 United States tour in a season celebrating the life and legacy of Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison (1943-2024).
Led by Interim Artistic Director Matthew Rushing, the passionate spirit and extraordinary technique of Ailey’s dancers will be showcased in three exciting performances featuring world premieres, new productions, repertory favorites, and Ailey classics.
This year’s exciting world premieres include: Sacred Songs by Matthew Rushing, former AILEY dancers Jamar Roberts’s Al-Andalus Blues and Hope Boykin’s Finding Free, and Many Angels—the first premiere for the Company by Lar Lubovitch. Sacred Songs features music used in the original 1960 premiere of Alvin Ailey’s seminal Revelations but later omitted, resurrecting and reimaging those spirituals—with the collaboration of creative associate and musical director Du’Bois A’Keen—as an offering to our present need for lamentation, faith, and joy.
Du'Bois A'Keen and Matthew Rushing joined WBGO's Doug Doyle to talk about this year's dances.
This year’s NJPAC performance schedule includes new music and dance Sacred Songs. The music fuses jazz, African drums, and more. Rushing put his amazing touch as a choreographer on this piece.
"Before the pandemic hit we had planned on celebrating Revelations' 60th anniversary. That's when the first idea came of resurrecting the songs that were originally taken out of the first iteration of Revelations. When Revelations premiered in 1960 at the 92nd Street Y, it was over an hour long and had live musicians and singers on stage. When it was time for Mr. Ailey to tour the ballet he had to condense it. When I was reading his biography I came across these songs there were taken out and felt like what a great idea to resurrect these songs and reimagine them in a more contemporary form and create a ballet to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Revelations."
The piece has deep meaning to A'Keen as well.
"Sacred Songs, the ballet work, is super special because it was an opportunity for me as a lover of dance, as a trained dancer and also a lover of music and a trained musician, to bring all of that to one space in a sort of dream collaboration. Prior to working on this, I've been a huge fan of Matthew Rushing and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, so this was a moment for me to bring all of those worlds together and be a contributor to something really special."
To coincide with the tour, A’Keen has released a Sacred Songs Suite album featuring his brilliant team of musicians in a live recording of the soundtrack, along with some bonus songs. The spirituals, influenced by the sounds of jazz, West African drums, gospel, hip hop, and calypso, are available to purchase as an album or individually and on all streaming platforms for free.
Other exciting events surrounding the company's three-day performance at NJPAC:
Fri 5.09 @ 6:00 p.m. Pre-Show Panel Discussion in Tribute to Judith Jamison @ NJPAC
A special pre-performance event paying homage to Alvin Ailey’s Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison (1943-2024). Panelists include Matthew Rushing (current Alvin Ailey Interim Artistic Director and former Ailey dancer), Masazumi Chaya (former Ailey dancer/choreographer/Associate Artistic Director), and Sylvia Waters (former Ailey dancer and Artistic Director of Ailey II). Moderator: dance critic Zita Allen. Free to ticket holders of the May 9th 8pm performance.
July-August AileyCamp Newark
A unique summer day camp program for middle school students ages 11-14, AileyCamp will operate in 10 cities across the country, including Newark (July 1 – August 8; now accepting applications). In partnership with AILEY Arts In Education & Community Programs, NJPAC founded this six-week program for Newark kids in 2011. More than a dance program, AileyCamp provides young people a safe space to develop their self-esteem, creative expression, and critical thinking skills, ultimately helping them reach their unlimited potential. The 2025 summer camp culminates with a special performance by the students on the NJPAC stage on Wednesday, August 6 at 7pm.
