ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Judith Jamison - Dancer, choreographer
Judith Jamison uses dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching into the future.

Why you should listen

Judith Jamison joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1965 and quickly became an international star. Over the next 15 years, Ailey created some of his most enduring roles for her, most notably the tour-de-force solo Cry. During the 1970s and 80s, Jamison appeared as a guest artist with ballet companies all over the world, starred in the hit Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies and formed her own company, The Jamison Project. She returned to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1989 when Ailey asked her to succeed him as Artistic Director. In the 21 years that followed, she brought the Company to unprecedented heights, including two historic engagements in South Africa and a 50-city global tour to celebrate the Company’s 50th anniversary.

Jamison is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them an Emmy, an American Choreography Award, the Kennedy Center Honor, a National Medal of Arts, a "Bessie" Award, the Phoenix Award and the Handel Medallion. She was also listed in TIME's list of The World’s Most Influential People and honored by First Lady Michelle Obama at the first White House Dance Series event. In 2015, she became the 50th inductee into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance. Jamison continues to dedicate herself to asserting the prominence of the arts in our culture.

More profile about the speaker
Judith Jamison | Speaker | TED.com
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - Dance company
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from a now-fabled 1958 performance at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance.

Why you should listen

Constance Stamatiou began her dance training at Pat Hall's Dance Unlimited and North Carolina Dance and Theatre. She graduated from NorthWest School of the Arts and studied at SUNY Purchase before becoming a fellowship student at The Ailey School. In 2009, Stamatiou received the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the performing and visual arts. She performed at the White House Dance Series and has been a guest performer on So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, Logo's Trailblazer Honors, and The Today Show. Stamatiou has also danced in the films Shake Rattle & Roll and in Dan Pritzker's Bolden. Stamatiou was a member of Ailey ll a guest artist for Darrell Grand Moultrie and Caroline Calouche and Co. She is a certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis instructor and a mother of two. Stamatiou first joined the Company in 2007 and rejoined in 2016.

Solomon Dumas was introduced to dance through AileyCamp. He later began his formal training at The Chicago Academy For The Arts and the Russell Talbert Dance Studio, where he received his most influential training. Dumas studied at New World School Of The Arts and was a fellowship Level 1 student at The Ailey School. He has performed with companies including Garth Fagan Dance; Ronald K. Brown/Evidence A Dance Company; and Labyrinth Dance Theater and was a member of Ailey II. Mr. Dumas joined the Company in 2016.

Samantha Figgins began dancing at Duke Ellington School of the Arts under the tutelage of Charles Auggins and Sandra Fortune-Greene and attended summer intensives at Dance Theatre of Harlem under the direction of Arthur Mitchell.  She continued her education at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. There, she performed works by George Balanchine, Bill T. Jones, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. Upon graduating cum laude, Figgins became a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, performing works by Dwight Rhoden, Jae Man Joo and Camille A. Brown. She also performed at the 2014 DanceOpen Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Figgins was featured both on the cover of Dance Spirit magazine and in Pointe magazine's "10 Careers to Watch" in 2013. She has worked with Beyoncé and can be seen in the film Enemy Within alongside Tiler Peck and Matthew Rushing. Figgins joined the Company in 2014.

More profile about the speaker
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater | Speaker | TED.com
TED2019

Judith Jamison and members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Revelations from a lifetime of dance

Filmed:
201,333 views

"Dance can elevate our human experience beyond words," says Judith Jamison, artistic director emerita of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In between performances of excerpts from Alvin Ailey's classic works "Revelations" and "Cry," Jamison reflects on the enduring power of dance to transform history into art that thrills audiences around the world. (Performances by Solomon Dumas, Samantha Figgins and Constance Stamatiou)
- Dancer, choreographer
Judith Jamison uses dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching into the future. Full bio - Dance company
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from a now-fabled 1958 performance at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:14
(Music: "Wade in the Water"
by Ella Jenkins)
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Wade in the water
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Wade in the water, children
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Wade in the water
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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Oh, why don't you wade in the water
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Wade in the water, children
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Wade in the water
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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See that man all dressed in white
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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He looks like a man of the Israelite
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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Wade in the water
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Wade in the water, children
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Wade in the water
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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See that man all dressed in red
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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It looks like the man that Moses led
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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Wade in the water
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Wade in the water, children
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Wade in the water
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God's a-gonna trouble the water
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Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel
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Daniel, Daniel
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Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel
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Then why not every man?
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Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel
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Daniel, Daniel
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Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel
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Why not every man?
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Man went down to the river
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Man went down to the river
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Man went down to the river
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Went down there for to pray
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Man went down to the river
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Man went down to the river
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Man went down to the river
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To wash his sins away
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He washed all day, he washed all night
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He washed till his hands were sore
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He washed all day, he washed all night
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Till he couldn't wash a-no more
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Man went down to the river
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Man went down to the river
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Man went down to the river
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(Music fades)
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(Applause)
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(Juliet Blake) And now,
let's give a warm welcome
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to the artistic director emerita
of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,
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Judith Jamison.
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(Applause)
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Judith Jamison: Thanks.
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How are y'all?
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(Audience cheers)
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JJ: Yeah, you know
you've just been to church?
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(Laughter)
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You just saw a baptism, yes?
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This is from this wonderful piece
Mr. Ailey created in 1960,
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called "Revelations."
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Mr. Ailey was 29 years old
when he choreographed this masterpiece.
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It's been danced all over the world
and understood universally,
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because he understood
the humanity in us all.
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"Revelations" is a reflection
of a journey we all take in life,
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and, hopefully, triumphantly.
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That was the magic of Alvin Ailey.
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He was able to see you, in the audience,
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see me, as the dancer,
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and see the connection between us,
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and choreographed works
that connected us all.
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So you felt he was telling your story,
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while I felt I was dancing mine.
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I started dancing when I was six years old
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in Philadelphia.
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I was skinny ...
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(Laughter)
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Dark chocolate,
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and a kid with legs up to my armpits.
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And the very first performance I had,
at the Judimar School of Dance,
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was in a red checkered shirt,
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dungarees, pink ballet shoes,
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and we were dancing to "I'm an Old Cowhand
from the Rio Grande."
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I loved every minute of it.
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I mean, I literally did love
every minute of it,
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especially when I heard the applause,
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and I knew right there,
when I was six, I said,
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"That's for me."
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(Laughter)
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At six, you're not thinking
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that's going to be
a career of your lifetime,
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but that was perfect for that moment.
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I danced my way through school,
and through college,
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and it still didn't dawn on me
that that's what I actually wanted to do.
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I went to an audition,
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which I was dreadful in --
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it's the only audition
I've had in my life --
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and when I was let go
from that audition --
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because I thought when they were saying,
"Thank you very much,"
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that meant for me to stay.
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(Laughter)
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I ran up the steps,
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and there was a man sitting on the steps.
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And I barely noticed him.
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He was an observer.
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Three days later, that man called me
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and asked me, would I like to join
the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
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That's how it happened, folks, that's it.
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There's no drama or trauma.
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(Applause)
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So I spent 15 years dancing
with the company,
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and then I directed it
for something like 21 years.
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If you were black
and African American and a dancer,
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any time between the '40s and the '70s,
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you had much to say,
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because your complete voice
was not being heard.
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And you were not being represented
as you truly were.
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Alvin Ailey had the courage,
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right in the middle
of the Civil Rights Movement,
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to present the truth about who we were --
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that our creativity, our beauty,
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our intelligence, our talents
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were an intrinsic part of the panoply
of American culture.
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Our mantra has always been
to educate, to entertain,
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and to lift our audiences.
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Mr. Ailey believed that dance
came from the people
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and needed to be delivered
back to the people.
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We didn't dance in a vacuum.
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It was our mission to serve people.
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We call it outreach now,
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but it's always been a part
of who we were and still are,
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60 years later, to this day.
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Being inclusive of our audiences --
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it's always been an important
part of the company.
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We ask ourselves, who are we dancing for?
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Why are we dancing, if not to show people
what it is to be human
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and to connect with the audiences
that we dance for.
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We've always felt responsible
to make sure the community understood
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that what we do
is a part of their heritage.
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We just don't do this, also, in America,
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we do it all over the world.
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We tour more than any other
dance company in the world.
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After Nelson Mandela
was released from prison,
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I thought, well, this is the time
to go to South Africa.
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And that was some outreach.
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We went to Johannesburg, Soweto,
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and some other townships
that were really in dire straits.
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And it dawned on me,
as we were there, I'm going like,
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"Here we are in the seat of Mother Africa,
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and we're trying to teach
these people how to dance?"
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(Laughter)
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But it was our African Americanness
that they were interested in,
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and the culture that we had developed
over the last 400 years.
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We toured all over the world many times,
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and whether we're in Europe
or South America or Asia
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or somewhere else,
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audiences are thrilled and excited.
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You sounded thrilled and excited.
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Sometimes with tears in their eyes,
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because this nonverbal
communication really works.
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And it's about embracing everyone.
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Alvin didn't need to explain to us
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what was going on at the time
in the '60s and the '70s;
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it was obvious why were doing his work.
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He knew what the truth
of the time was about,
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and he was unafraid
to reveal it through dance.
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He tapped into every emotion
he had and we had,
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and from angerness to happiness,
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to grief and everything in between,
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he knew us.
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He took our history
and turned it into powerful dance.
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He and I overlapped generationally.
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We didn't have to talk
about things so much,
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because we understood implicitly
our shared responsibilities.
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So when he asked me
to take over the company
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before he passed in 1989,
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I felt prepared to carry it forward.
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Alvin and I were like parts
of the same tree.
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He, the roots and the trunk,
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and we were the branches.
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I was his muse.
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We were all his muses.
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The ballet "Cry,"
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which some of you might have seen --
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you're going to see an excerpt of it --
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it was made on me,
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and Alvin dedicated it to all black women,
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especially our mothers.
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When Alvin and I went in the studio,
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of course he wasn't thinking,
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"Here I am, creating an iconic work."
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Do you know any artist that does that?
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You don't go into the studio
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to create anything
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but what's coming truthfully
from your heart and your spirit.
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And you trust that you have a dancer
you can share that with.
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Rehearsal space is a sacred space,
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not to be intruded upon,
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because it's about talking
to each other through spirit.
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You better have some
technique on top of that
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so you can do the dance.
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(Laughter)
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He brought his Alvin to "Cry"
and I brought my Judy to it.
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I just did the steps.
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And this was a birthday
present for his mother,
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because he couldn't afford
to get her a tactile gift.
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When I performed it the first time,
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it was physically
and emotionally draining.
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I hadn't yet run through the whole piece
from beginning to end.
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The ballet is 16 minutes long.
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It's about a proud woman
who has been to hell and back,
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from her journey across the Atlantic.
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She's exhausted,
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she's a queen,
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and in this section,
you're going to see she is triumphant.
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She made it,
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and she is, in that last
step that she does,
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beating away anything negative
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with her tremendous strength.
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And in the last step,
she digs into the earth
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and she reaches into the sky ...
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because she's clearing space
for the next journey.
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I performed it in 1971,
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and we are still clearing space.
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Now let me leave you
with one last thought.
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Here we are, in the 21st century,
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still fighting for civil rights.
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Not a day goes by
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that we are not made aware
of the struggle that continues.
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I believe that dance
can elevate our human experience
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beyond words.
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And when you're sitting in the dark,
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in the theater,
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having a personal experience,
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you don't feel blocked or misunderstood.
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You feel open,
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alive,
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and, we hope,
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inspired.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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(Music: "Right on. Be free."
by East Harlem)
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I wanna go where the north wind blows
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I wanna know what the falcon knows
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I wanna go where the wild goose goes
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High flyin' bird, high flyin' bird, fly on
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I want the clouds over my head
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I don't want no store bought bed
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I'm gonna live until I'm dead
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Mother, mother, mother
Save your child
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Right on, be free
251
848374
3465
14:24
Right on, be free
252
852571
3562
14:28
Right on, be free
253
856895
3255
14:32
I don't want no store bought bed
254
860761
2133
14:35
Right on
255
863213
1405
14:36
I want the clouds over my head
256
864642
2817
14:39
Be free
257
867483
1151
14:40
Ain't no time to be afraid
258
868658
2190
14:44
Mother, mother, mother
Save your child
259
872791
5425
14:50
(Music)
260
878240
5818
15:19
I don't want no store bought bed
261
907490
2066
15:21
Right on
262
909934
1445
15:23
I want the clouds over my head
263
911403
2675
15:26
Be free
264
914102
1181
15:27
Ain't no time to be afraid
265
915307
1950
15:31
Mother save your child
266
919474
2784
15:35
I wanna see a rainbow in the sky
267
923721
2971
15:42
I wanna watch the clouds go by
268
930491
3904
15:50
It might make my load a little light
269
938822
4880
15:58
Lord, Lord, Lord
Where will I be tomorrow night?
270
946458
4247
16:06
Right on
271
954744
2518
16:09
Be free
272
957286
1310
16:11
Right on, be free
273
959760
3367
16:15
Right on, be free
274
963638
3484
16:19
Right on, be free
275
967146
3707
16:22
Right on, be free
276
970877
3634
16:26
Right on, be free
277
974887
3386
16:31
Right on, be free
278
979109
3073
16:34
(Music fades)
279
982918
2475
16:37
(Applause)
280
985830
4727
16:42
(Cheers)
281
990581
4456
16:47
(Applause)
282
995061
6375
16:53
(Cheers)
283
1001460
3905
16:57
(Applause)
284
1005389
5444

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Judith Jamison - Dancer, choreographer
Judith Jamison uses dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching into the future.

Why you should listen

Judith Jamison joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1965 and quickly became an international star. Over the next 15 years, Ailey created some of his most enduring roles for her, most notably the tour-de-force solo Cry. During the 1970s and 80s, Jamison appeared as a guest artist with ballet companies all over the world, starred in the hit Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies and formed her own company, The Jamison Project. She returned to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1989 when Ailey asked her to succeed him as Artistic Director. In the 21 years that followed, she brought the Company to unprecedented heights, including two historic engagements in South Africa and a 50-city global tour to celebrate the Company’s 50th anniversary.

Jamison is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them an Emmy, an American Choreography Award, the Kennedy Center Honor, a National Medal of Arts, a "Bessie" Award, the Phoenix Award and the Handel Medallion. She was also listed in TIME's list of The World’s Most Influential People and honored by First Lady Michelle Obama at the first White House Dance Series event. In 2015, she became the 50th inductee into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance. Jamison continues to dedicate herself to asserting the prominence of the arts in our culture.

More profile about the speaker
Judith Jamison | Speaker | TED.com
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - Dance company
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from a now-fabled 1958 performance at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance.

Why you should listen

Constance Stamatiou began her dance training at Pat Hall's Dance Unlimited and North Carolina Dance and Theatre. She graduated from NorthWest School of the Arts and studied at SUNY Purchase before becoming a fellowship student at The Ailey School. In 2009, Stamatiou received the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the performing and visual arts. She performed at the White House Dance Series and has been a guest performer on So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, Logo's Trailblazer Honors, and The Today Show. Stamatiou has also danced in the films Shake Rattle & Roll and in Dan Pritzker's Bolden. Stamatiou was a member of Ailey ll a guest artist for Darrell Grand Moultrie and Caroline Calouche and Co. She is a certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis instructor and a mother of two. Stamatiou first joined the Company in 2007 and rejoined in 2016.

Solomon Dumas was introduced to dance through AileyCamp. He later began his formal training at The Chicago Academy For The Arts and the Russell Talbert Dance Studio, where he received his most influential training. Dumas studied at New World School Of The Arts and was a fellowship Level 1 student at The Ailey School. He has performed with companies including Garth Fagan Dance; Ronald K. Brown/Evidence A Dance Company; and Labyrinth Dance Theater and was a member of Ailey II. Mr. Dumas joined the Company in 2016.

Samantha Figgins began dancing at Duke Ellington School of the Arts under the tutelage of Charles Auggins and Sandra Fortune-Greene and attended summer intensives at Dance Theatre of Harlem under the direction of Arthur Mitchell.  She continued her education at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. There, she performed works by George Balanchine, Bill T. Jones, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. Upon graduating cum laude, Figgins became a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, performing works by Dwight Rhoden, Jae Man Joo and Camille A. Brown. She also performed at the 2014 DanceOpen Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Figgins was featured both on the cover of Dance Spirit magazine and in Pointe magazine's "10 Careers to Watch" in 2013. She has worked with Beyoncé and can be seen in the film Enemy Within alongside Tiler Peck and Matthew Rushing. Figgins joined the Company in 2014.

More profile about the speaker
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater | Speaker | TED.com