Alvin Ailey News

Kumu Kahua Theatre is offering a free audition workshop for actors today, June 23, 10:00am to 5:00pm. The workshop, offered to actors of all levels, will focus on the 'cold reading' often called for by directors at auditions.

Princess Grace Foundation Founding Trustee Lynn Wyatt visited with Cicely Tyson after a recent performance of The Trip to Bountiful. The play features the talents of Princess Grace Awards winners Michael Wilson (director) and Rui Rita (lighting design). Scroll down for a photo of Tyson and Wyatt!

Producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Soul Doctor, about the life and music of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and his unlikely friendship with Nina Simone, announced today that Benoit-Swan Pouffer, the acclaimed former artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, will be the show's choreographer. The producers are also pleased to announce full casting and the slated performance schedule.

ArtsReach, an educational program of The Kentucky Center, will hold its 2013 Summer Dance Camp at the Kentucky Center. Dancers of all levels will study Hip Hop, African, Contemporary and Liturgical Dance with renowned instructors and choreographers.

On June 12, 2013, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, one of the world's most popular dance companies, kicked off its seven performance engagement at the David H. Koch Theater. The performance marked the Company's historic return to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for the first time in over a decade and its first engagement there led by Artistic Director Robert Battle. Scroll down for photos from the opening festivities!

American Ballet Theatre has named Keith Roberts, former Principal Dancer with ABT, to the post of Ballet Master. The appointment, which was announced yesterday by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie, becomes effective September 2013.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater presents Ronald K. Brown's newest work, Four Corners. Set to the music of Carl Hancock Rux, Yacoub, and various other artists, the work brings to life the vision of four angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding the four winds. The Ailey dancers have become known as inspiring interpreters oF Brown's unique dance storytelling and the opening night world premiere cast will include Linda Celeste Sims, Belen Pereyra, Glenn Allen Sims, Demetia Hopkins, Hope Boykin, Fana Tesfagiorgis, Jacqueline Green, Kirven James Boyd, Daniel Harder, and Michael Francis McBride.

Kumu Kahua Theatre is offering a free audition workshop for actors on Sunday, June 23, 10:00am to 5:00pm. The workshop, offered to actors of all levels, will focus on the 'cold reading' often called for by directors at auditions.

Sutton Foster, Joshua Henry, Van Hughes, Keala Settle, Christopher Sieber, Emerson Steele and Chris Sullivan have been cast in Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet, the second Encores! Off-Center presentation of the 2013 season, on July 17. Tickets for Violet, directed by Leigh Silverman, with music direction by Michael Rafter, sold out shortly after going on sale. Tickets for the rest of the Encores! Off-Center season are still available; the majority of tickets are $25.

Celebrate Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) Dance students as they take the stage in their final performance of the year at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College tonight, June 13, 2013 at 7pm. Evening highlights include a duet from Complexions Contemporary Ballet, riveting choreography from the highly praised and well-established Artist-in-Residence Christopher L. Huggins and new works by HSA's talented dance faculty. Works will range from traditional ballet to urban hip-hop, showcasing the diversity of art forms within the dance program that HSA rigorously dedicates itself to training its serious students in.

360° Dance Company presents PREVIEW, a Benefit Party tonight, June 13, 2013 at 7pm. The evening will include complimentary Summer Sangria and Mediterranean Appetizers as well as an intimate look at the company's newest repertory. The benefit will take place at The Alvin Ailey Studios, Joan Weil Center for Dance, 405 W. 55th Street, 5th floor, NYC.

American Repertory Ballet Artistic Director Douglas Martin is please to announce its 2013-2014 Company Dancers, including the addition of Company Dancer Nanako Yamamoto and the promotion of dancers Andrea D'Annunzio and Mattia Pallozzi from Trainee to full Company Dancer. Yamamoto, D'Annunzio, and Pallozzi will join returning dancers: Cameron Auble-Branigan, Euphrosyne Avery, Stephen Campanella, Alice Cao, Alexander Dutko, Shaye Firer, Monica Giragosian, Samantha Gullace, Joshua Kurtzberg, Karen Leslie Moscato, Marc St-Pierre, Edward Urwin, and Claire van Bever. The 2013-2014 Season will be Auble-Branigan's and Firer's second season with ARB. It will be the third season for Avery, Cao, Giragosian, and van Bever. Campanella, Gullace, Moscato, St-Pierre, and Urwin are entering their fourth season, Dutko his fifth, and Kurtzberg is entering his sixth season with ARB.

Danny Burstein, Eisa Davis, Raul Esparza, Peter Friedman, Judy Kuhn, Martin Moran, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Anika Noni Rose and Henry Stram will star in Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, the inaugural show of New York City Center's new Encores! Off-Center series, playing for five performances, July 10 - 13 at City Center. The show will be directed bySam Gold and choreographed by Chase Brock; Jeanine Tesori is the Encores! Off Center artistic director. Chris Fenwick is the music director. In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all and to younger audiences, the majority of tickets are $25.

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting has announced that the Eighth Annual Stella by Starlight Benefit Gala will be held tonight, June 10 at Espace in New York City. This year's honorees include acting luminaries Elaine Stritch and George Takei, Broadway idol Stephen Sondheim and real estate mogul Charles S. Cohen. The gala will feature a special live performance from Ms. Stritch's friend Bernadette Peters and red carpet appearances by Alec Baldwin, Liza Minnelli and James Gandolfini. Additional red carpet guests include gala co-hosts and Stella Adler alums JANE LEVY (Evil Dead, Suburgatory) and Keith Powell (30 Rock).

Ballet Hispanico, recognized as the nation's leading Latino dance organization since 1970, announces the 2013 Pre-School Summer Dance Camps to be held weekly from June 10 - July 12 for boys and girls ages 3-5. Through fun and engaging classes, children explore the sounds, movement, stories, and art of Cuba (June 10-14), Colombia (June 17-21), Mexico (June 24-28), and Peru (July 8-12).

Celebrate Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) Dance students as they take the stage in their final performance of the year at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 7pm. Evening highlights include a duet from Complexions Contemporary Ballet, riveting choreography from the highly praised and well-established Artist-in-Residence Christopher L. Huggins and new works by HSA's talented dance faculty. Works will range from traditional ballet to urban hip-hop, showcasing the diversity of art forms within the dance program that HSA rigorously dedicates itself to training its serious students in.

Yesterday, at an event hosted at The Ailey Studios, Dance/NYC launched a new visibility campaign, New Yorkers for Dance. By moving the dance community and those who care about the future of the art form to offer personal video messages ('I am a New Yorker for Dance because...'), the campaign strengthens the collective voice for dance, draws attention and resources to dance artists and companies (1,200+), and lifts the field as whole.

Fox Valley Repertory continues their 2013 theater series rockin' to the classic tunes of the 1960s with the fun summer musical, Why Do Fools Fall in Love?. Directed and Choreographed by Kyle Donahue of Geneva with Music Direction by Robert Deason, performances will take place at the Pheasant Run Resort Mainstage tonight, June 6 through July 28, 2013

Pioneering Jazz Musician Carline Ray will release her debut CD 'Vocal Sides', produced by her daughter, award-winning vocalist Catherine Russell, on Carlcat Records, today, June 4, 2013.