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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center opens in a renovated church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Pearl Lang shares the space. Financial woes force Ailey to announce that the company is broke.
Louis Johnson choreographs the Broadway musical "Purlie," for which
he receives a Tony Award nomination. Ex-Ailey dancer George Faison
and Debbie Allen are in the cast.
The AAADT begins a State Department-sponsored tour of North Africa and Europe and a six-week tour of the Soviet Union. Ailey is the first American modern dance choreographer to present works in the USSR since Isadora Duncan. Russian audiences lavish the company with 20-minute standing ovations.
Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane perform as the American Dance Asylum.
Garth Fagan, who comes out of the Jamaican National Company, creates
The Bottom of the Bucket, But ... Dance Theatre in Rochester, New
York.
THE FEET, an Afro-centric dance magazine is launched, with Carole Y. Johnson, a member of the Eleo Pomare company, as its editor. It is later edited by Alicia Adams, with contributions from Chuck Davis, Rod Rodgers, Zita Allen, and others.
Alvin Ailey choreographs "The River" for American Ballet Theatre. It is one of many works he will create for major ballet companies.
Joan Myers Brown founds Philadanco, proving black professional dance
companies can prosper beyond New York. The company attracts a wide
range of choreographers like Gene Hill Sagan, Milton Myers, and
Ron K. Brown. Others, like Anne Williams of Dallas Black Dance and
Cleo Parker Robinson, will follow in her footsteps.
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Alvin Ailey's solo "Cry" for Judith Jamison is a resounding success. Ailey dedicates the dance to all black women everywhere, "especially our mothers."
Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem makes its official debut
in the lobby of the Guggenheim Museum. Karel Shook, former ballet
teacher at the Dunham School now teaches DTH dancers.
On May 4, Merce Cunningham dancer Gus Solomons, jr. presents "Urban Recreation/The Ultimate Pastorale" at the Judson Dance Theater. He is one of a handful of African-American dancers in the post-modern movement. Dianne McIntyre is one of the dancers in his company.
George Faison forms the George Faison Universal Dance Experience with a repertoire that includes "Suite Otis," "Gazelle," and "Poppy." He begins to stage concerts for major recording artists like Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Ashford & Simpson.
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DANCE MAGAZINE makes Zita Allen its first African-American dance critic in response to concerns voiced by the Black Choreographers Association.
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George Faison is the first
African-American choreographer to win a Tony Award for his work
on the Broadway musical "The Wiz."
DTH gives its first major New York season.
Ailey II, the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, is established under the directorship of former Ailey dancer Sylvia Waters.
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Louis Johnson, follows in the footsteps of Katherine Dunham when he accepts an invitation to choreograph the Metropolitan Opera's production of "Aida." He will later choreograph for DTH and AAADT, among other troupes.
The dance world pays tribute to Dunham dancer Syvilla Fort before she passes.
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The dance series DANCE IN AMERICA premieres on the public television station Thirteen/WNET New York.
Alvin Ailey makes "Pas de Duke" for American Ballet Theatre star Mikhail Baryshnikov and Judith Jamison. Baryshnikov, who had seen the Ailey company during its Soviet tour, asked Ailey to create a dance especially for him.
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