The Ailey School’s Summer Intensive Program gives motivated students with at least three years of consistent training the opportunity to study dance in the heart of New York City’s Theater District. The Program is structured to advance the technical, artistic, and performance skills of dancers.
Alvin Ailey believed that dancers should have the versatile training that produces a “ballet bottom and a modern top”. The training at The Ailey School is structured with this philosophy in mind. The weekly curriculum includes a daily ballet class, and a daily modern technique class of either Horton and/or Graham–based modern. A distinct variety of supplementary techniques include jazz, Dunham technique, hip-hop, tap, body conditioning, yoga, Gyrokinesis®, barre à terre and repertory or elective workshops. In order to give students the most effective and focused training, all students are evaluated individually and placed in the proper level in each technique and Faculty Advisors and the School Directors create a customized schedule for each student.
Repertory and Elective Workshops
Every year, several established guest choreographers are invited to set new or re-staged works on our students. Previous choreographers include Kirven Boyd, Hope Boykin, and Vernard J. Gilmore of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Jennifer Archibald, recent resident choreographer in Robert Battle’s New Directions Choreographers Lab; and Ray Mercer, current cast member of The Lion King on Broadway.Students may audition for repertory workshops with guest artists on the first day of the summer program, given they meet the minimum technique level requirements that are determined by the choreographers and the School Co-Directors.Students may also choose from several elective workshops which do not require an audition. Previous year’s elective workshops have included medleys from the musicals Hairspray and The Wiz, choreographed and staged by Judine Sommerville, a traditional West African piece by Maguette Camara, and cutting edge hip-hop works by Jonathan Lee.
All workshops culminate in the Summer Sizzler performances in The Ailey Citigroup Theater and in studio showings on the last two days of the program.
