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The Dance: Judith Jamison's Triumph

By Clive Barnes
May 5, 1971

For years it has been obvious that Judith Jamison is no ordinary dancer. She looks like an African goddess and her long body has an unexpected gracefulness to It, but it moves in a manner almost more elemental than human. Her face is fantastic.

It is a long Modigliani face, like a black sculpture. It is tragic face, a mask of sorrow. It is a face born to cry the blues, but when she smiles it is with an innocent radiance, a joyfulness that is simple and lovely. And she dances with an articulated beauty, serene, together and wom anly. She holds herself a lit tle aloof from the audience, but she is reserved rather than shy. She never tries con sciously to please an audi ence. She is wonderfully proud, from the poise of her head set perfectly on a long, strong neck, to the lightly sculptured muscles of her long legs.

So for years it has been obvious that Judith Jamison was no ordinary dancer. Now Alvin Ailey has given his African queen a solo that wonderfully demonstrates what she is and where she is. It was given its world pre miere at the New York City Center last night, and it was a sensation. Rarely have a choreographer and dancer been in such accord.

The solo, which lasts some 15 minutes and must be one of the longest solos ever choreographed, is called “Cry.” Ailey has dedicated it: “For all black women every where—especially our mothers.” You can see why, for here crystallized is the story of the black woman in Amer ica told with an elliptic and cryptic poetry and a passion ate economy of feeling.
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https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/05/archives/the-dance-judith-jamisons-triumph-aileys-cry-depicts-the-black.html

Judith Ann Jamison (/ˈdʒæmɪˌsən/;[2] May 10, 1943 – November 9, 2024) was an American dancer and choreographer. She was the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1989 until 2011 and then its artistic director emerita. Snip...
Following a brief illness, Jamison died at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, on November 9, 2024. She was 81.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Jamison?origin=serp_auto

About Alvin Ailey:
Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) 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 (later Ailey School) as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. Snip...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Ailey?origin=serp_auto

Alvin Ailey was an incomparable dancer, a forward-facing visionary, and one of the most significant choreographers of the 20th century, whose work changed the course of modern dance forever. His legacy lives on today.
https://www.ailey.org/our-story