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Four dancers are on stage with blue shirts and cropped pants. They are holding hands and their hands are in the air in a V. Each dancer has one foot up.

Repertory

Juba

COMPANIES

CHOREOGRAPHER

RUN TIME

14 Minutes

WORLD PREMIERE

New York City Center, 2003

ASSISTANTS TO CHOREOGRAPHER

Elisa Clark, Katarzyna Skarpetowska

MUSIC

Original Score Composed by John Mackey

COSTUMES

Mia McSwain

LIGHTING

Burke J. Wilmore

Former Artistic Director Robert Battle’s first creation for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a modern day Rite of Spring with an abstract twist—an electrifying thrill ride through ritual and folk tradition. Battle’s uninhibited movement melds seamlessly with an original score for string quartet and percussion by his frequent collaborator John Mackey. 

Four dancers on stage are facing one another posing. They are in blue shirts and navy cropped pants.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's K. Segawa J. Terry B. Pereyra-Alem, and M. McBride in Robert Battle's Juba Photo by Paul Kolnik

Four dancers are on stage in blue shirts and navy cropped pants. Three are walking and one is in an arabesque. They are all facing left.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's J. Harris, J. Bozeman, S. Roberts, and S. Dumas in Robert Battle's Juba Photo by Paul Kolnik

Four dancers are in a line close together holding one another. One is leaping in the air. They are all wearing blue shirts and navy cropped pants

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's J. Harris, J. Bozeman, S. Roberts, and S. Dumas in Robert Battle's Juba Photo by Paul Kolnik

Four dancers are on stage with blue shirts and cropped pants. They are holding hands and their hands are in the air in a V. Each dancer has one foot up.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's K. Segawa, J. Terry, B. Pereyra-Alem, and M. McBride in Robert Battle's Juba Photo by Paul Kolnik

A woman is dancing on stage. Her head is tilted back and one knee is in the air.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Jacquelin Harris in Robert Battle's Juba Photo by Paul Kolnik

News & Press

''Juba, Robert Battle's first work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is frenetic and electrifying, a terse, powerful explosion of transformative energy. On the surface, nothing seemed to be happening as three men and a woman jumped up and down virtually nonstop while regrouping into various patterns. Yet by the end, an infernal communal round had found spiritual release through some sort of centrifugal force. Filled with fabulously high-octane stamina by the Ailey dancers, Juba should not be mistaken for a minimalist piece. Mr. Battle has hit upon an abstract signature style that is highly dramatic. Everything seems to be sustained in tone, including John Mackey's commissioned and apt, jagged score for electronic string quartet and percussion. But Mr. Battle, and this is his originality, matches this apparent evenness of tone with a sense of climax. The steps are similar and repeated but there is also mounting energy. It is an ingenious paradox, found also in old ecstatic dances." 
– Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, 12/13/2003

funders

This production of Juba was made possible with major support from Michele & Timothy Barakett. Generous support was also provided by The Fred Eychaner New Works Endowment Fund. 

The commissioning of this work was originally made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council for the Arts, a State agency.