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AAADT, Ailey II and Ailey School students in Alvin Ailey's Memoria

Repertory

Memoria

COMPANIES

CHOREOGRAPHER

WORLD PREMIERE

New York City Center, 1979

STAGING

Masazumi Chaya

STAGING OF AILEY II AND THE AILEY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Ronni Favors

MUSIC

Keith Jarrett

COSTUMES

A. Christina Giannini

LIGHTING

Chenault Spence

RUN TIME

  • 26 minutes

Alvin Ailey’s Memoria is a deeply personal work and one of his most affecting. Mr. Ailey said that nearly all of his dances had some basis in a relationship, feeling, or event that he experienced. In the case of Memoria, choreographed in 1979, his motivation was the death of his dear friend and colleague, Joyce Trisler.

He dedicated the ballet “to the joy…the beauty…the creativity…and the wild spirit of my friend,” and set it to the sublime music of jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. It “has the beating heart that made the man and his company American treasures,” praised The New York Times.

Mr. Ailey admitted that creating Memoria was a wrenching experience for him, and the pain of his loss is evident in the ballet’s first section, “In Memory,” where a woman is often isolated even while surrounded by couples and two male attendants. Yet the mood of the second section, “In Celebration,” transcends that sorrow, ending in a joyous emotional crescendo.
 

How pitiful is her sleep. 
Now her clear breath is still.  

There is nothing falling tonight,  

Bird or man,  

As dear as she.  

Nowhere that she should go  
Without me. 
None but my calling  

O nothing but the cold cry of the snow.”  

—Kenneth Patchen  


(In Memory of Kathleen)  

 

A group of dancers are huddled on stage forming a circle with their arms raised towards two men holding up one woman in a cross-like position. The woman is in red and the men are in white button downs and black pants.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey's Memoria Photo by Paul Kolnik

A group of dancers are on a blue stage posing with their arms outstretched in different directions

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey's Memoria Photo by Paul Kolnik

A group of dancers are in a circle kneeling around one dancer who is standing up with her arms raised. Everyone is in pale blue outfits on a blue stage.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey's Memoria  Photo by Paul Kolnik

Dancers on stage are posed with their knees bent and heads on one another. They form three lines. They are all in drapey brown dresses.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey's Memoria Photo by Paul Kolnik

See It Live

Music Credits


“Runes” (Keith Jarrett – Cavelight Music)
Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Haden, Members of the RSO Stuttgart, Mladen Gutesha
℗ 1976 ECM Records GmbH
Used by arrangement with ECM Records 

Funders

Funds for this production were provided, in part, by The Ford Foundation.  

The creation of this work was made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Hero Credit: Photo by Paul Kolnik