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A group of dancers on stage all facing one dancer being lifted into the air. They are all wearing bright colored dresses or black pants with bright colored tank tops.

Repertory

The Road of the Phoebe Snow

COMPANIES

CHOREOGRAPHER

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER PREMIERE

Delacorte Theater Central Park,1964

AILEY II PREMIERE

1983

WORLD PREMIERE

92nd Street YM-YWHA, 1959

RESTAGING

Masazumi Chaya

MUSIC

Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn

ORIGINAL COSTUMES

Normand Maxon

COSTUMES

Jon Taylor

LIGHTING

Chenault Spence

MUSICAL STYLE

Jazz

The Phoebe Snow was a train on the Lackawanna Railroad Line that passed through the mid-western section of the United States. Legend has it that its name came from a meticulous lady named Phoebe Snow who traveled the line dressed in white satin and lace and looked out on the surrounding countryside with disdain. The Road of the Phoebe Snow explores—first abstractly, then dramatically—the incidents that may have occurred on or near those railroad tracks. 

Four pairs of dancers are on stage, the men lifting the women up. A fifth pair is in the center where the man is cradling the woman. The women are in bright dresses and the men in black pants and bright tank tops.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Talley Beatty's The Road of the Phoebe Snow Photo by Paul Kolnik

A group of dancers on stage all facing one dancer being lifted into the air. They are all wearing bright colored dresses or black pants with bright colored tank tops.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Talley Beatty's The Road of the Phoebe Snow Photo by Paul Kolnik

A man and woman are centered on stage. She is leaning back and he is grabbing her throat. There are a line of background dancers looking at them. The men are in black pants and colored tank tops, the women are in dresses.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Talley Beatty's The Road of the Phoebe Snow Photo by Paul Kolnik