The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is performing in Eugene this week, giving local audiences a close-up look at works old and new from an iconic dance company in the midst of a new era.
Dancer, choreographer and activist Alvin Ailey Jr. founded the dance theater in 1958, creating a haven for Black dancers and artists in New York City and originating works that peered into the heart of the Black experience in America, like in Ailey’s signature work, “Revelations.”
Now, close to seven decades later, the dance theater is in the middle of a 20-city tour of the United States under the stewardship of its new artistic director, Alicia Graf Mack, a former principal dancer for the company, who was mentored by its longtime artistic director, Judith Jamison…