Alvin Ailey News

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, recognized as a vital "American Cultural Ambassador" to the world and New York City Center's Principal Dance Company, returns to the New York City Center stage for the 43rd consecutive year from December 3, 2014 - January 4, 2015. The Company will present 39 performances during an exciting annual season that has become a joyous holiday tradition.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, recognized as a vital "American Cultural Ambassador" to the world and New York City Center's Principal Dance Company, returns to the New York City Center stage for the 43rd consecutive year from December 3, 2014 - January 4, 2015. The Company will present 39 performances during an exciting annual season that has become a joyous holiday tradition.

The 1st Annual Blake Whyte Music Festival is Sunday, Sept.7 at 7 pm at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, 405 West 55th St. Actor/Singer/Songwriter Blake Whyte (Wicked, Mamma Mia!) is presenting an evening of World Premiere Music and Dance, Collaborating with Six Different Choreographers. For tickets, visit: blakewhyte.com

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 25 3-5pm MAG Gallery, 126 Larchmont Avenue, Larchmont, NY. Hours: Tues-Sat 11-5pm. Exhibition Oct 21-November 15. Hilda Green Demsky, a Fulbright Fellow, recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts grant and winner of the Andy Warhol Visual Arts Residency, has had an extensive, multi-faceted career focusing on the ebb and flow of her life. From the Pennsylvania coal mines of her youth, to our polluted waterways, to the cosmos, to the parks of New York and New England (Artist-in-Residence at Acadia National Park), Ms. Demsky shares the highlights of her career as a fine artist in this 60-year retrospective exhibition. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 1958 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art & Design, Ms. Demsky began paintings of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, which were exhibited at City Center Gallery and Lincoln Center. Travel has been a big influence in her outpouring of canvases, as she received numerous art residencies, awards and fellowships from all over the world creating landscape, abstract and environmental paintings. Her outer space artworks were inspired by an invitation to witness a launch at the NASA Space Center in Florida after receiving the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship. Her exhibition at the National Gallery of Costa Rica reflected her love of painting 'en plein air' on canvas and Mylar. A resident of Larchmont, NY, Ms. Demsky has been a member of the Mamaroneck Artists Guild for 42 years and is a member of the Katonah Museum Art Association, the Pen & Brush, and National Association of Women's Artists. The book, 'Hilda Green Demsky: The Flow of the Artist's Life and Work,' containing her biography and more than 100 color photographs of her paintings, will accompany this exhibition. Contact: For more information contact: Suzanne Montresor MAG Gallery Director 126 Larchmont Avenue, Larchmont NY Tel: 914 834-1117 (closed in August) e-mail: mag2120@verizon.net or JordanaAlford@gmail.com, (617) 750-2085

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts), the non-profit organization that contributes to the cultural vitality of the nation by supporting the artistic development of talented young artists, today announces YoungArts Awareness Day, a nationwide initiative to "keep arts alive" on Monday, September 8. Encouraging everyone who has a creative instinct to take part, YoungArts Awareness Day will feature pop-up performances and events in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City and invites artists across the country to create and share their own work, or their artistic experiences at museums and concerts via social media with the tags #keepartsalive, #youngarts and #youngartsawarenessday.

This September, American Repertory Ballet and Princeton Ballet School will be participating in community events throughout central Jersey: Cranbury Day in Cranbury, Septemberfest in Hamilton, and the Hub City Sounds Festival in New Brunswick.

Watch out! Richard Schechner returns, armed with another series of shocks and surprises: the world premiere of "Imagining O" at Peak Performances, September 10-13. Transforming the notoriously erotic French novel "Story of O" into a multi-site, immersive production, the 80 year-old director's most recent work promises to reaffirm Peak's commitment to the ultra and outre challenge, and the director's reputation for creating uncomfortable joy in his audiences. The show opens the Kasser Theater's 10th anniversary season.

DANCING SONDHEIM -- a free App compiling 7 short dance movies by Richard Daniels using the music of Stephen Sondheim -- will be released September 1, 2014, it has been announced by Richard Daniels, DANCES FOR AN iPHONE creator and the app's principal choreographer.

A Jacob's Pillow Dance Award recipient, MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, and critically lauded choreographer who pairs diverse movement styles with issues of social and historical significance, Kyle Abraham brings his newest work to MASS MoCA October 18 and 19 in a co-presentation with Jacob's Pillow, made possible by the Irene Hunter Fund for Dance. The Watershed is an evening-length work in Abraham's signature blend of classical form, postmodern invention, and urban influences, performed by Abraham and his accomplished company, Abraham.In.Motion. Performances will be held at MASS MoCA's Hunter Center, in North Adams, Mass.

DANCING SONDHEIM – a free App compiling 7 short dance movies by Richard Daniels using the music of Stephen Sondheim – will be released September 1, 2014, it has been announced by Richard Daniels, DANCES FOR AN iPHONE creator and the app's principal choreographer. Dances for an iPhone comes in versions for the iPhone, and iPad and is available through iTunes. The free app will also soon be available for Android devices. www.dancesforaniphone.com

New York City Center's 2014 Fall for Dance Festival will kick off with two FREE evenings of dance at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, in association with The Public Theater, on September 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. (rain date, September 14).

Today, August 21, 2014, Princeton Ballet School will host a special workshop led by notable alumna and Fulbright Scholar Casey Lee Thorne.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2014 season with Shakespeare's comic exploration of love in all its glory and madness, A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Shana Cooper, with movement by Erika Chong Shuch. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays at the Bruns Amphitheater from September 3 through September 28.

This Thursday, August 21, 2014, Princeton Ballet School will host a special workshop led by notable alumna and Fulbright Scholar Casey Lee Thorne. Thorne graduated from Princeton Ballet School's Professional Training Program and is Founder and Artistic Director of Inside Out Contemporary Ballet (IOCB), a professional dance company based in Marin, California. She will lead a contemporary dance workshop for advanced dancers at Princeton Ballet School's studios in Princeton, NJ on August 21, 2014 from 11:45 am until 1:15 pm. The workshop is part of Thorne's choreographic project If I Were You - Project Israel, for which she recently received a Fulbright Scholarship.

Chicago Dancing Festival 2014 will feature two more World Premieres, plus plans for a pre- and post-performance sponsors party around the 'Celebration of Dance' Grand Finale performance, Saturday, August 23. Free tickets for the Festival's indoor performances become available to the public this week, July 8 and 9. The 2014 Chicago Dancing Festival, featuring top ballet, modern and hip-hop companies from Chicago and across the country, is set to take place today, August 20 - 23.

Exactly 125 years from when the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University opened its doors in 1889, the National Historic Landmark, led by Board Chairman Melvin L. Katten and Executive Director Brett Batterson, celebrates its milestone 125th Anniversary with a special performance, "Living the History - 125 Years of the Auditorium Theatre" on December 9, 2014. The celebratory evening, which begins with a star-studded program at the Auditorium Theatre (50 E Congress Pkwy), will include a tribute to the diverse entertainment that has been, and continues to be presented at the theatre including symphonic music, opera, Broadway musicals, rock music and dance. The performance will be immediately followed by a Gala Celebration Dinner at the Palmer House Hilton (17 E Monroe) to cap off the extraordinary night.

Single tickets for performances during the Lied Center for Performing Arts' 25th anniversary season are now on sale to the public. Patrons can purchase tickets in person at the Lied Center, 301 N. 12th St. on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus (11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday), by phone at 402-472-4747, or online at http://www.liedcenter.org.

The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, celebrating their 125th Anniversary Season, has been chosen as one of five honorees for the City of Chicago and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) inaugural Fifth Star Awards, celebrating the city's creativity through artists, arts advocates and cultural institutions. The free public celebration, also honoring dancer Lou Conte, artist Richard Hunt, Grammy-winning composer, pianist and radio personality Ramsey Lewis and arts advocate Lois Weisberg, will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7:00 pm at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (201 E. Randolph St.) and will feature live performances and tributes throughout the evening.

CHICAGO – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton are excited to release single tickets to the renowned contemporary company's 2014–15 season performances in Chicago, on August 25, 2014 at 10am. All remaining seats to the company's performances at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater will be available online at hubbardstreetdance.com or by phone to the Hubbard Street Ticket Office at 312-850-9744. (Season 37 subscriptions, which include tickets to all four 2014–15 season engagements, went on sale May 1, 2014 and remain available by phone or online at hubbardstreetdance.com/subscribe.) Season 37 single tickets start at just $25; the performance schedule is as follows: