Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Nina Flagg Lives How She Dances

Nina Flagg is a dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue native to Los Angeles. Studying dance and gymnastics since three years old led Nina toward a deeply impactful and widely renown career embellished with inimitable milestones, accolades, and accomplishments that continue to accrue to this day.

Blain-Cruz Directs and Emile Choreographs “Stranger Love” Opera

Two African Americans have important roles in the opera “Stranger Love,” which makes its world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, May 20, in downtown Los Angeles. The creative team also includes Director Lileana Blain-Cruz, who is making her LA Phil debut. She is one of three Black women to ever be nominated for a Tony Award in the “best direction of a play” category for her directorial debut at the Lincoln Center Theater with “The Skin of our Teeth” by Thornton Wilder. Originally from New York and Miami, she is currently resident director of the Lincoln Center

‘Moonlight’ Filmmaker Barry Jenkins to Direct Film about Choreographer Alvin Ailey

NEW YORK (AP) — Barry Jenkins will direct a film based on the life of choreographer Alvin Ailey. A spokesperson for Fox Searchlight on Monday confirmed that the studio is developing the project, with the “Moonlight” filmmaker directing. Jenkins last helmed the Oscar-nominated James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Raised in segregated rural Texas, Ailey became a pioneering choreographer, dancer and director who helped popularize modern dance. He died in 1989 at the age of 58 from AIDS-related complications. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. The film will be partly based

Alvin Ailey Celebrates 60 Years of Dance

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (AAADT) celebrates its 60th anniversary with a tour through the U.S., including its biennial return to the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 3 – April 7.  According to the AAADT website, the company is recognized by Congress as an American “Cultural Ambassador to the World,” and has performed for over 23 million people in 48 states and in 71 countries on 6 continents, celebrating the African-American cultural experience within the American modern dance tradition. Carman de Lavallade and Alvin Ailey were friends and danced under the tutelage of modern