A Night of Dance and Celebration
The Grammy Award-Winning Singer-Songwriter, Activist, and Golden Globe-Winning Actress Andra Day will serve as Honorary Chair at this One-Night-Only Special Performance that features the Piece d’Occasion by Hope Boykin, which combines dancers from all parts of the Ailey Family. There will be a Soirée following the performance in The Appel Room with music by DJ M.O.S.
Ailey’s annual Ailey Spirit Gala, which takes place every year at Jazz at Lincoln Center, for the first time in its history, will now take place at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 for the first time ever at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 for the first time ever. As part of the special event, Hope Boykin created a piece d’occasion known as Chasing the Spirit based on a song created by former member of the Alvin Ailey Company, as well as an excerpt from Alvin Ailey’s uplifting Revelations, which was accompanied by a festive evening to celebrate the art and soul of dance. Andra Day will be the honorary chair for the evening, who is a Golden Globe-winning actress, a Grammy® Award-winning singer, and a GRAMMY® Award-winning songwriter. Day rose to stardom with her smash hit song “Rise Up,” which amassed 1 billion streams, and made her feature-acting debut as Billie Holiday in the biopic “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Day is currently working on her highly anticipated second studio album while preparing for the upcoming release of her second leading film directed by Lee Daniels, a Netflix thriller titled, “The Deliverance.” In the spectacular, one-night-only performance, the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will appear on stage with outstanding dancers from Ailey II, talented students from The Ailey School, and youngsters from Ailey Camp.
The event will be chaired by Daria & Eric J. Wallach, Len & Emily Blavatnik, and Dr. Danielle Robinson & Reverend Dwayne McClary. Sponsorship of the Ailey Spirit Gala is provided by Diageo North America Corporation.
Tickets and information about the Alvin Ailey Spirit Gala can be found at alvinailey.org/support/ailey-spirit-gala or by calling 212-405-9029. It is and will always be one of the most exciting and memorable times of the year at the Ailey Spirit Gala, when all the elements that define Alvin Ailey come together and move together with love for one another,” said Robert Battle, Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It will be a pleasure to see Hope Boykin’s special premiere at Ailey, featuring dancers of all ages from all over Ailey, which will showcase the legacy of spiritual reciprocity that is nourishing and inspiring to all of us. Bennett Rink, Executive Director of Ailey, commented that we are deeply grateful to the co-chairs, sponsors, and patrons who will join us on May 24 for their contributions toward bringing dance to the next generation. The dancers from across the entire Ailey organization who took part in this unique celebration proved so beautifully how important it is to keep the spirit of dance alive. “We congratulate them on this unique celebration.” As part of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s annual Mother’s Day Weekend, which will conclude with three performances at New Jersey Performing Arts Center as part of its 2023 North American tour, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Spirit Gala will follow the successful culmination of their North American tour. There were 22 cities on the tour, starting in Toronto in February, traveling to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the Fox Theater in Atlanta before arriving at NJPAC in Newark in the end. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is presenting its New York season as part of the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House’s spring festival this year.
This special evening will be kicked off by a drumming match from the Ailey Extension and will feature dancers from all the generations of the Ailey family in a celebration of dance’s power to unite, uplift, and inspire. In the stunning Appel Room, which features an impressive wall of glass with views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, you will experience a beautiful evening of dining, dancing, and the music stylings of DJ M.O.S. The Ailey Spirit Gala is an annual event that raises funds to support Ailey’s vital programs for young people, including scholarships for talented students of The Ailey School and innovative Arts In Education and Community Programs.
There will be seven performances from June 6 – 11 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the Howard Gilman Opera House. Two exuberant programs of recent works and classic audience favorites will bring the company’s passion and dazzling technique back to BAM for the first time since 2010, bringing its passionate energy and dazzling technique to the audience for the first time since 2010. In Brooklyn Bonds, we will see rarely performed works by Kyle Abraham, Ronald K. Brown, and Twyla Tharp; and in All Ailey, we’ll see Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations. Those interested in learning more about the organization and purchasing tickets starting at $35 can do so by visiting alvinailey.org.