Imagine, if you can, a time when dance companies had their own specials on network television. They weren’t competing for votes, and shrieking judges and smarmy hosts were not part of the equation. They were just there to… perform.
If you’d like to revisit that simpler era, and catch some rare footage of one of the country’s top dance companies while you’re at it, we recommend checking out Alvin Ailey Day at the Film Society of Lincoln Center this Sunday. The event, part of the company’s 18-month-long 50th anniversary celebration, includes screenings of the first televised performance of Ailey’s signature piece, “Revelations” (aired on CBS in 1962), and a 1974 CBS special featuring dances inspired by Duke Ellington.
Non-New Yorkers will get their chance to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the (impossibly buff) flesh starting on Monday, when the company kicks off a U.S. tour that will take them to more than 25 cities over the next four months.