Cal Performances at UC Berkeley presents the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Holding Space as part of their Cal Performances at Home series. Alvin Ailey Dance Theater says, “The ensemble work centers on healing and the quest for sustainable pathways towards wholeness, giving shape to the complex emotions of this unique moment in time. Created against a backdrop of civil unrest and relentless threats upon the natural world, Holding Space asks: in what ways can we collectively accommodate one another to better traverse this new and unprecedented terrain?”
The program includes excerpts from Ailey’s Revelations, reimagined for this moment of COVID-19, and spotlights Cry on its 50th anniversary. The performance includes film footage that brings Alvin Ailey and the Company from six decades ago to the virtual stage for a dance dialogue alongside current company members in this newly created dance film of Ailey’s signature work, filmed at Wave Hill Public Garden & Cultural Center in New York.
Additionally, the third section, Cry, is set to the Voices of East Harlem singing Right On, Be Free, in a new film adaptation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the work Alvin Ailey created and dedicated to, “all Black women everywhere – especially our mothers.”
