Remembering Dance Icon, Ulysses Dove

Ulysses Dove, the brilliant choreographer and dancer, died from AIDS 25 years ago on June 11, 1996 at the age of 49.

At the time of his passing, he'd already reached stratospheric heights as one of the world's leading dance makers for ballet companies, including American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), Ballet France de Nancy, Basel Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, and Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal.

In honor of his memory, TheBody.com―which is the largest publication in the world dedicated to reporting on HIV and AIDS―has written about his life with testimonies from his brother, choreographer Alfred Love and the dance stars Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden, the co-artistic directors of Complexions Contemporary Ballet.

In addition to highlighting the brilliance of Dove's work, Richardson and Rhoden have also joined TheBody in taking a pledge to say no to HIV stigma and never discriminating against a dancer who is living with the virus. According to Richardson, "Discrimination is not Complexions at all." He asserts that, "It's important that we respect our dancers' privacy, but if someone said, 'I have HIV. Can you put that in my bio?' We'd say, 'Yes, absolutely.'"

Thus far, Dante Puleio, the newly appointed artistic director of The Limón Dance Company and Nicky Paraiso, the curator of LaMama Moves! Dance Festival and director of programming at The Club at La Mama have already taken this pledge to rejecting HIV stigma and hate in any form. During the height of the AIDS epidemic, thousands of dancers and choreographers like Dove lost their lives. To date, stigma about the disease continues to affect people living with the disease around the world, including in the dance field.

With this new pledge, choreographers, directors, and dancers can join Richardson, Rhoden, Puleio, and Paraiso in saying that this hate ends today. More than honoring Ulysses Dove's beautiful memory, doing so ensures that dance will return from this pandemic stronger and more unified than ever before.