Judith Jamison
Judith Jamison
Judith Ann Jamisonis an American dancer and choreographer, best known as the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDancer
Date of Birth10 May 1943
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
dancer high indelible legs people though touched
People don't remember me for how high my legs went, even though they went up very high, and how many pirouettes I did. They don't remember me for that. They remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. It's an indelible memory on the heart and in the mind.
blood continues dancers felt human jobs knew presence together worked
Alvin knew what I would do with it because we worked together for such a long time. It's part of my blood and part of who I am as a human being. Alvin's presence is felt by us all, even the new dancers who never worked with him. And if we do our jobs well, that continues the vision.
alive dance dancer dancers hit love miss soon
As long as there are dancers around who love to dance, there will be an Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. We miss him so much, but he's alive as soon as you see a dancer hit the stage.
anyone companies dancers leeway pickup possible project rather taste
My idea for the Jamison Project was rather like a pickup company. The idea was to give the dancers a taste of the menu. Today, dancers need to try as many companies as possible without having a drop-dead loyalty to me or anyone else. They like to have the leeway to go their own way.
dance dancer threshold
Every dancer lives on the threshold of chucking it.
dancer black world
Maybe its a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to be the best.
sacrifice thinking dancer
I haven't had a family, but I don't think of that as a sacrifice: my dancers are my family.
dancer silence looks
If you look at a dancer in silence, his or her body will be the music. If you turn the music on, that body will become an extension of what you're hearing.
basement brought craft father growing house kid saw shine smelled smells steel tear wood
I smelled the same smells as a kid growing up in my little house in Philadelphia. My father used the basement as his craft shop. And when I smelled the wood and saw the shine of the stainless steel set, it brought a tear to my eye.
bill donald fact general john ways
The way Alvin Ailey has transformed modern dance and dance in general is the fact of variety. It's a cornucopia of ways to move. There are choreographers in the company as - as diverse, as different from each other as Donald McKayle and Bill T. Jones, or Jawole Zollar and John Butler, Lar Lubovitch, you know, and Judith Jamison.
anybody kick kinds leg million stuff throwing tricks
We're dancing from here, from inside, not from outside. You could look at anybody throwing their leg and kick their leg up and a million pirouettes and do all kinds of tricks and stuff like that. But that's not what dance is really about.
evolve interested time
I was only interested in the look, not the time of day. And how things would evolve for the young people.
aunt block flock people seek somebody upstairs
I tell young people that people aren't just going to flock to you as your mentors. You have to seek them out. It could be your next-door neighbor; it could be somebody upstairs from you, somebody down the block from you. An aunt or an uncle. Some relative. A parent.
best maybe
Maybe it's a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to be the best.