World-renowned Ailey Dance Theater returns to New Orleans after nine years

COSTA MESA, CA - MARCH 08: Company dancers perform in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater production of 'Processional/ Honor, Honor' in Take Me to the Water as part of Revelations at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts on March 8, 2012 in Costa Mesa, California. (Photo by Doug Gifford/Getty Images)

World-renowned Ailey Dance Theater returns to New Orleans after nine years

As part of the company's 60th Anniversary, two completely different performances will take place March 22 and 23 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater.

by Mary Staes | March 20, 2019

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It’s been nine years since New Orleanians were given the chance to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.

Thanks in part to the New Orleans Ballet Association, that’s about to change this weekend. As part of the company’s 60th anniversary, two completely different performances will take place Friday and Saturday at the Mahalia Jackson Theater.

The Friday program will feature one of the company’s most well-known pieces, “Revelations.” The dance is considered to be Ailey’s signature masterpiece.

The program will also feature music from Earth, Wind & Fire and saxophonist Grover Washington Jr.

Saturday’s performance will feature “Members Don’t Get Weary” by Jamal Roberts, “Ella” and “Juba” by Robert Battle, and “EN”
by Jessica Lang.

“EN” is a new work created specifically for the company’s 60th anniversary, titled by the Japanese word with multiple meanings of circle, destiny, fate or karma. It is Lang’s 100th ballet, but her first choreographed for Ailey’s main company.

Mary Staes

Mary Staes is Digital Content Lead for Very Local. She works with our freelancers and crafts content for our social media platforms and website. Before Very Local, she worked with CBS affiliate WWL-TV as a web producer and weekend assignment editor for about 4 years. She has also handled broadcast coverage for 160 Marine Reserve training facilities while she served as an active duty Marine. As a native New Orleanian, she takes being "very local" to heart. She loves being intertwined with the culture and figuring out how there are less than two degrees of separation between us all, whether we're natives or not.