DDP Talks To
"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
New York Times: Alvin Ailey Returns to Lincoln Center With a Tribute to Women
By Gia Kourlas
14 June 2018
The notion that female choreographers are underrepresented at major dance companies has hit the mainstream, so much so that just about any program with the word “women” in its title is starting to feel more than merely unimaginative: It has an air of pandering.
On Wednesday night, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continued the trend by opening its season at the David H. Koch Theater with “Celebrate Women,” featuring works by Jessica Lang, Judith Jamison and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and concluding with “Revelations,” Alvin Ailey’s 1960 masterpiece and the company’s meal ticket. It keeps the crowds coming back (just in case an all-female choreographer program doesn’t),
Leading off the company’s brief Lincoln Center season was Ms. Lang’s “EN,” her first work for the company and her 100th dance in total.
Ms. Lang and Robert Battle, Ailey’s artistic director, have known each other since their days at the Juilliard School. Ms. Lang’s husband, Kanji Segawa, is a member of the Ailey company and previously danced with Mr. Battle’s troupe, Battleworks Dance Company. (He was featured in “EN,” naturally.) It was a chance, you hoped, for Ms. Lang to dig beneath her usual sleek, designed surface. But while handsome, “EN,” named after a Japanese word with multiple meanings — a circle, destiny, fate or karma — fizzled out.
Read the full article in the New York Times.
