Judith Jamison is a dance legend. Artistic director of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for more than 20 years, Jamison, 67, will step away from that role (but not the company, she stresses) this summer.
Established by Ailey in 1958, the New York-based company has thrived under Jamison’s leadership, performing for millions of people in more than 70 countries, and in the United States, everywhere from Bill Clinton’s inauguration to TV’s So You Think You Can Dance. The troupe will be in Vancouver this weekend.
Jamison, who started with the Ailey Company in 1965 and quickly became its star dancer, can point to countless career highlights. The Globe’s Marsha Lederman spoke with her about a few of them.
I think we should start with the seminal 1971 work, Cry.
Yeah, that was seminal, to say the least. That’s the one that put me in box-office territory, where concert modern dancers didn’t have box-office pull, but all of a sudden I did the dance and people would call the box office to ask if I was doing it. I didn’t have all the details when I performed it, about it being dedicated to all black women, especially our mothers. It was dedicated to Mr. Ailey’s mother; it was a birthday present for her. Thank God I did not know all that when I first did the piece. I had never done it from beginning to end. I finally did it in the actual performance and halfway through I thought my legs didn’t exist, because it’s very difficult to do.
Why do you say thank God you didn’t know?
Because that’s like the weight of the world on your shoulders. It’s dedicated to all black women, especially our mothers? I think that’s a fairly heavy message that Mr. Ailey was sending, and fortunately he did not tell me that, and so when I went onstage I was infusing it with whatever feeling I was feeling. And also just literally physically trying to get through it.
Tell me about dancing with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Pas De Duke in 1976 [which was set to Duke Ellington’s music].
We spent a good time together, then we did that first one and we went across the street to eat and we acted like neither of us was scared to death and couldn’t eat anything. We got backstage and we started from either side of the stage, so I looked across to him, he looked across to me, and we were on. We had a ball. And he was incredible.
Can you tell me about your first meeting with Alvin Ailey?
Yeah. It was at rehearsal the day after he invited me to join the company. He saw me at an audition that I failed miserably. It’s the only audition I’ve ever had that I failed really badly. I left and I remember calling my mom. But three days later he called me, and that’s how I joined the company.
Did you really fail miserably at the audition or was that just your imagination?
I was terrible. I had not danced for three months because I was working at the Texas Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York City. I think it was the first time in my life that I hadn’t danced in that long a period of time.
What was it like to work with him?
What was always great about Mr. Ailey was his generosity and his brilliance when it came to movement and how organic his movement was and remains. And how much you embrace what he choreographed – on a very personal level. Everyone felt Mr. Ailey was choreographing for them, period. And when he had to explain for the 19,000th time what something was about, he was so eloquent.
You took over the company the year Mr. Ailey died. What was that like for you?
In April of 1989, he asked me to take over the company, and of course I said yes. He died Dec. 1, 1989. That was a whirlwind because we opened the New York season three days later. It was non-stop. You know, going to the funeral, dancing, and then going directly to the theatre to open. So I didn’t get a chance to really mourn for Mr. Ailey until two, two-and-a-half years later, because I had hit the ground running.
What is your life going to look like after this summer?
I’ll let you know as soon as I get there. Otherwise, the mantra remains the same. I’m still educating, entertaining and enlightening, and letting people understand the importance of the gift that Mr. Ailey gave me and that he keeps giving us. That hasn’t changed. It’s a life work, and God knows I’ve devoted most of my life to celebrating this creative experience called dance and loving it, from being a dancer to being an artistic director to being not an artistic director, but being the person that I am. I’m still me.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver Friday and Saturday (balletbc.com) and at Victoria’s Royal Theatre March 22 and 23 (dancevictoria.com).
