Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Center’s Principal Dance Company, returns to the New York City Center stage from December 3, 2025 – January 4, 2026 for a five-week engagement. The milestone season raises the curtain on AILEY’s next era under the leadership of new Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack, the renowned dancer and educator, guided as ever by Alvin Ailey’s pioneering legacy. Audiences will be treated to classic works from the Ailey repertory that have inspired and uplifted fans for decades.
The company will continue to break ground with new works by contemporary choreographers that promise to propel dance in exhilarating new directions with five world premieres—Jazz Island by Maija García, Embrace by Fredrick Earl Mosley, Difference Between by Matthew Neenan, Song of the Anchorite by Jamar Roberts, and The Holy Blues by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in collaboration with Samantha Figgins and Chalvar Monteiro. The season, programmed jointly by Ms. Graf Mack and Associate Artistic Director Matthew Rushing, will also feature the company premiere of Medhi Walerski’s Blink of an Eye and a new production of Judith Jamison’s A Case of You.
Alicia Graf Mack said, “This monumental season draws deeply on Alvin Ailey’s legacy rooted in celebrating the resilience of the human spirit, while extending its truth and bold virtuosity to reflect this moment in time and our hopes for the future. Each new creation shares the utterly distinctive voice of its choreographer, testifying to the vitality of the tradition Mr. Ailey gave us and the gifts of spirit that Judith Jamison so lovingly nurtured. I am grateful and honored to be a caretaker of this ever-changing continuum of inspiration, along with Matthew Rushing and the company of brilliant dancers whose artistry will move us all as we take our next steps forward.”
Matthew Rushing said, “I join with the entire company in welcoming Alicia Graf Mack in her new role as our artistic director. Her great respect for and commitment to the AILEY mission, along with the perspective and integrity that informs her vision, will help elevate everything we do. We are excited to welcome audiences to New York City Center this holiday season to be uplifted by cherished classics and remarkable new works as the curtain goes up on the next chapter in AILEY’s extraordinary story.”
Performances kick off with a one-night-only Opening Night Gala performance and party honoring Daria L. Wallach, chair of the AILEY Board of Trustees. The special program, performed entirely to live music, will include the company premiere of Medhi Walerski’s Blink of an Eye with solo violinist Melissa White, a new production of Judith Jamison’s A Case of You sung by five-time GRAMMY® Award-winning jazz artist Samara Joy, and Alvin Ailey’s indelible Revelations, accompanied by a full choir.
In the world premiere Jazz Island, the first work for AILEY by Maija García, a Caribbean folktale comes to life through ancestral rhythms and divine intervention. Inspired by Geoffrey Holder’s “Black Gods, Green Islands” and featuring an original score by Etienne Charles, Jazz Island explores the spiritual dimensions of human drama and the connective force of love across the Afro-Caribbean diaspora.
Embrace by Fredrick Earl Mosley examines the ups and downs of human connections—messy, beautiful, and everything in between. Set to popular songs by Adele, Des’ree, Etta James, Maxwell, Ed Sheeran, and Stevie Wonder, this world premiere explores what it takes to love deeply, heal fully, and embrace the journey with open arms.
Matthew Neenan makes his choreographic debut on the company with a world premiere featuring his signature wild abandon and gestural playfulness. In Difference Between, acclaimed singer and composer Heather Christian contributes her raw power to an intricate world of strange tensions, potent griefs, and quiet loves.
In the world premiere Song of the Anchorite, renowned AILEY choreographer Jamar Roberts gives a fresh take on the 1961 solo Hermit Songs, Alvin Ailey’s reaction to a set of medieval religious texts and the haunting song cycle by Samuel Barber that they inspired. The result is a powerful meditation on passion and devotion danced to jazz trumpeter Avishai Cohen’s interpretation of a Ravel adagio.
The Holy Blues—a season world premiere among Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Samantha Figgins, and Chalvar Monteiro—takes its title from Alvin Ailey’s journal in which he wrote, “My roots are also in…the holy blues— paeans to joy, anthems to the human spirit.” The work is inspired by the Ring Shout and The Door of No Return. The soundtrack encompasses gospel music and the blues—the sacred and the secular—which serve as passages to the divine during times of trouble and strife.
In an intriguing piece that probes the relationship between dance and music, Blink of an Eye by Medhi Walerski lays bare the interplay of strength and vulnerability inherent in the creative process. The timeless beauty of J.S. Bach’s violin sonatas and partita anchors the athletic movement that is both precise and expansive in this company premiere supported by commissioning funds from New York City Center.
In a new production, the company revisits A Case of You, a sensual duet that was part of the 2005 work Reminiscin’ by AILEY’s second artistic director, Judith Jamison. This emotionally intense showstopper is danced to Diana Krall’s sultry rendition of the classic song by Joni Mitchell.
Three new company members join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater this season: Donnie Duncan Jr., previously with Nederlands Dans Theater; Mason Evans, a dancer from The Juilliard School; and Sebastian Garcia, who began dancing at AileyCamp New York and was most recently a member of the Collage Dance Collective.
AILEY welcomes Jawole Willa Jo Zollar as this year’s AILEY Artist in Residence, in the third year of a program that invests in and partners with choreographers who reflect Alvin Ailey’s cultural inquiry, participatory values, and far-reaching curiosity. As Artist in Residence, Ms. Zollar is connecting with multiple aspects of the organization, after her recent world premiere collaboration with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Following the New York City Center engagement, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s season will travel coast-to-coast on a 20-city United States tour from January through May 2026.
Tickets to Ailey’s New York City Center season start at $45 (fees included) and go on sale September 9 at noon at the New York City Center box office, through Customer Care at 212-581-1212, or at ailey.org or www.nycitycenter.org
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