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The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
March 8, 2016 - March 13, 2016
$33
The Auditorium Theatre’s annual Chicago presentation of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will bring a wide array of premieres, new productions, and classics to life on its landmark stage Tuesday, March 8 through Sunday, March 13. Beloved as one of the world’s most popular dance companies, Alvin Ailey’s pioneering legacy of uplifting, uniting, and celebrating the human spirit lives on in the movement of Ailey’s extraordinary dancers. Ticket prices start at $33 and can be purchased online at AuditoriumTheatre.org, by phone at 312.341.2300, or in-person at the Auditorium Theatre Box Office (50 E. Congress Parkway). The Auditorium Theatre will also present a sold-out student matinee on March 11.
Chicago audiences will have the opportunity to experience Robert Battle’s artistry and personal story via the stage and the page. Awakening, his first world premiere since becoming Artistic Director, leads the audience on a cathartic journey of dissonance and harmony, chaos and resolution. Battle’s personal awakening is shared in MY STORY, MY DANCE: Robert Battle’s Journey to Alvin Ailey, a Simon & Schuster children’s book based upon his life. Award-winning husband-and-wife team James Ransome and Lesa Cline-Ransome created the vibrant illustrations and wrote the inspiring narrative about a boy who, despite physical challenges and personal hardships, has a life filled with music, church, and, after seeing Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, dance. MY STORY, MY DANCE will be available for purchase at all performances.
The incomparable Ailey dancers will also introduce Chicago audiences to Company premieres of Paul Taylor’s Piazzolla Caldera, set in a smoky tango club, and Robert Battle’s stirring No Longer Silent, which brings to life a score by Erwin Schulhoff, a composer whose music was banned by the Nazis, and who died in a concentration camp in 1942.
The Company will also perform in thrilling new productions of three Ailey classics created by Alvin Ailey himself – Cry, the woman’s solo made famous by Judith Jamison, Love Songs, set to music by Nina Simone and Donny Hathaway and often considered the male counterpart to Cry, and Blues Suite, Ailey’s original masterpiece that launched the Company during its first performance in 1958. Each evening will conclude with Alvin Ailey’s must-see American classic, Revelations.