The Board of Trustees of Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation have announced that Robert Battle, Artistic Director of Ailey since 2011, has informed them that he needs to focus on his health and has submitted his resignation. The Board has accepted Battle’s resignation with regret. Battle will remain available to the Board through December 31.
Daria Wallach, Chair of the Ailey Board of Trustees, said, “Robert Battle has served the Ailey organization with talent, verve and distinction over the past dozen years. The Board, the Company, the staff, and the dance world recognize and applaud the contributions he has made to expanding the repertoire, fostering the work of choreographers, supporting Ailey’s wide-ranging education activities, and serving as an ambassador for dance. We offer him our warmest gratitude.”
Battle said, “The personal and professional bonds I’ve forged at Ailey working with the Company’s exceptional dancers and so many other great artists will always mean the world to me, but I know this is the right moment for me to move on and focus on my health. I look back on these past 12 years with warmth and gratitude.”
Associate Artistic Director Matthew Rushing, supported by Ailey’s artistic team, will take responsibility for leading the Company in its upcoming holiday engagement at New York City Center.
Ailey now enters a period of transition, as the Board begins the search to identify a new Artistic Director. The organization does so from a position of strength, as Ailey kicks off an exciting 65th anniversary season.
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