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A dancer in a flowing white costume performing on stage, leaning forward with one leg extended behind and arms gracefully outstretched. The background is dark, emphasizing the elegance and poise of the dancer's pose. The lighting casts soft shadows, enhancing the ethereal quality of the performance.

Repertory

Journey

COMPANIES

CHOREOGRAPHER

RUN TIME

6 Minutes

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER PREMIERE

Shaftesbury Theater, London, 1964

WORLD PREMIERE

1958

RESTAGING

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Diane Grumet Ailey II: Christopher Huggins and Patricia Dingle

MUSIC

“The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives. Used by permission of Peer International Corporation.

COSTUMES

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Malcolm McCormick Ailey II: Carol Vollet-Kingston

LIGHTING

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Nicola Cernovitch Ailey II: Tim Hunter

Joyce Trisler, Alvin Ailey’s friend and Lester Horton Dance Theater colleague, and one of the first members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, set her ethereal female solo to Charles Ives’s “The Unanswered Question,” composed sometime before 1909. In Ives' short, intensely evocative orchestral mood poem, the haunting score for cello and trumpet poses a persistent ‘question’ as the dancer hunts for an unattainable ‘answer’. The New York Times described Journey as “exaltedly spiritual.”  

Trisler originally choreographed this piece in 1958 and later incorporated it into a revised version of a larger work called Theater Piece (1960).  

A dancer in a white outfit balances on one leg, with the other leg extended high behind them and arms gracefully positioned. The stage is dimly lit, highlighting the dancer's elegant pose and the flowing movement of their attire.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Linda Celeste Sims in Joyce Trisler's Journey Photo by Paul Kolnik

A dancer in a flowing white outfit performs a graceful pose on a dimly lit stage, with one arm extended upward and the other arm curved outward, creating an elegant and serene image.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Linda Celeste Sims in Joyce Trisler's Journey Photo by Paul Kolnik

funders

Generous support for this production was provided by The Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey - Sara & Bill Morgan New Works Endowment Fund and The Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn & Nicolas Rohatyn New Works Endowment Fund. This work was also made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.