Dudley Eugene Williams (August 18, 1938 - May, 2015) was an American modern dancer who performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1964 to 2005.
Dudley Eugene Williams was born in East Harlem, New York City, on August 18, 1938. His father was carpenter Ivan Leroy Williams and his mother Austa (nee Beckles). After his initial application for admission to the music division to study piano was submitted past the deadline date, he enrolled for dance at the High School of Performing Arts in New York, graduating in 1958. [1] [2]
Straight after graduation, Williams established The Corybantes, a dance troupe which toured union halls and army bases. [1] He performed in the companies of Talley Beatty, Donald McKayle, and May O'Donnell, attended Juilliard for a short time, and joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1961 [3] on a scholarship. [1]
Williams joined the Alvin Ailey Company in 1963, [4] after being asked to replace a dancer who quit just before a tour, and danced with both Ailey and Graham for some years. [1]
He became best known for the solo "I Wanna Be Ready" in the Ailey masterwork "Revelations", and for the dance "Love Songs," a 16-minute solo created for him by Ailey in 1972. [5] His final performance with the Ailey Company took place on May 8, 2005. [6]
He was the longest active member of the Ailey company. [7] [8] Ailey tried to persuade him to become his assistant, but Williams preferred to dance. [1]
Williams was praised for his "flowing, musical style, magnetism and stage presence." [9]
Williams performed as a featured dancer for the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, having met Pomare when both were students at the High School of Performing Arts. [10]
After retiring from the Ailey Company, Williams continued to teach at the Ailey School. [11]
In 1996, [11] with Carmen de Lavallade and Gus Solomons Jr., he co-founded and performed with Paradigm, a dance company devoted to showcasing mature dancers. [12] Williams was featured in the 2016 Rohan Spong documentary Winter at Westbeth. [13]
He died in May 2015 in his Manhattan apartment at age 76. [1]
Modern dance in the United States is a form of contemporary dance that was developed in the United States in the 20th century. African American modern dance also developed a distinct style.
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Lester Iradell Horton was an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher.
African-American dance is a form of dance that was created by Africans in the Diaspora, specifically the United States. It has developed within various spaces throughout African-American communities in the United States, rather than studios, schools, or companies. These dances are usually centered on folk and social dance practice, though performance dance often supplies complementary aspects to this. Placing great value on improvisation, these dances are characterized by ongoing change and development. There are a number of notable African-American modern dance companies using African-American cultural dance as an inspiration, among these are the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Katherine Dunham Company. Hollywood and Broadway have also provided opportunities for African-American artists to share their work and for the public to support them.
Westbeth Artists Housing is a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations in New York City. The complex comprises the full city block bounded by West, Bethune, Washington and Bank Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City; the complex is named for the streets West and Bethune.
Judith Ann Jamison is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.
Eleo Pomare was a Colombian-American modern dance choreographer. Known for his politically-charged productions depicting the Black experience, his work had a major influence on contemporary dance, especially Black dance. After a tour to Australia in 1972, and the subsequent return of his then lead dancer, Carole Johnson, his style of dancing continues to influence Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander modern dancers.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Revelations is the best-known work of the modern dance choreographer Alvin Ailey. It is also the signature work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which premiered an extended version of the work in 1960, when Ailey was 29 years old. Set to spirituals, gospel, and blues music and influenced by the choreographer's own Christian upbringing, it presents a vision of the historical African American experience from a church-inspired perspective. The three sections of the final 36-minute revised version depict the suffering of slavery, baptismal joy, and a choral church celebration.
Robert Battle is a dancer, choreographer and the former Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Elizabeth Cameron Dalman is an Australian choreographer, teacher, and performer. She founded Australian Dance Theatre and was its artistic director from 1965 to 1975. She is also the founding director of Mirramu Dance Company.
Rohan Spong is an Australian documentary film director best known for his films All the Way Through Evening and Winter at Westbeth.
George W. Faison is an American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and theater producer, and winner of a 1975 Tony, a Drama Desk Award, and a 1991 nominee for the Emmy Award for choreography. He was a featured dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founder of the George Faison Universal Dance Experience, and co-founder/producing artistic director of the Faison Firehouse Theater.
Loretta Agatha Abbott was an American educator, dancer, choreographer, singer, director, dance captain, and actress. She was an early member and foundation builder for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. She was also a founding member of the Clark Center for the Performing Arts, and worked with the organization from 1959 to 1989.
Troy Powell also known as Troy O'Neil Powell is an American dancer, choreographer, educator, and director. He is a former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and former artistic director of AAADT's second company, Ailey 2. Powell was fired in July 2020 after an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the Ailey School concluded that he had engaged in "inappropriate communications" with students who were interested in joining the Ailey 2.
Joan Miller was an American dancer, choreographer, and educator. She was the artistic director of The Joan Miller Chamber Arts/Dance Players, a mixed-media dance company that used satire to make social commentary and provoke social change, from 1970 to 2007. Miller was also the founder and director of the dance program at Lehman College from 1970 to 2000.
Mariko Sanjo is a Japanese modern dancer, choreographer, director based in New York City and Japan.
Jacqueline Green is an American ballet dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. She is noted for her elegant and commanding presence on stage as well as her unusually rapid ascent in being recognized as a great and powerful dancer.
Carole Yvonne Johnson is an African American contemporary dancer and choreographer, known for her role in the establishment of the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA), and as co-founder of Bangarra Dance Theatre in Australia. Early in her career she became a lead dancer in the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, and Pomare had a profound influence on her dancing style.
Eleo Pomare was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 18, 2007.
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