Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey Dancer of 'Power and Radiance,' Dies at 81 [View all]

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Source: New York Times

Published Nov. 9, 2024Updated Nov. 10, 2024, 12:35 a.m. ET


Judith Jamison, a majestic dancer who became an international star as a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and who directed the troupe for more than two decades, building it into the most successful modern dance company in the country, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 81.

Her death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, was announced by Christopher Zunner, a spokesman for the Ailey company, who said she died “after a brief illness.”


Ms. Jamison performed Alvin Ailey’s “Cry” at New York City Center in 1975. “Cry,” an immediate hit, made her a star.Credit...Jack Vartoogian/Archive Photos, via Getty Images

At 5-foot-10, Ms. Jamison was unusually tall for a woman in her profession. “But anyone who’s seen her onstage is convinced she’s six feet five,” the critic Deborah Jowitt wrote in The New York Times in 1976. Ms. Jamison (pronounced JAM-ih-son) acknowledged in her 1993 autobiography, “Dancing Spirit,” that “I was the antithesis of the small-boned, demure dancer with a classically feminine shape.” But it wasn’t just her physical presence that was distinctive; she was a performer of great intelligence, warmth and wit.

“Jamison doesn’t show you steps, she uses them to show you a woman dancing,” Ms. Jowitt wrote. “This ability to maintain a human dimension and to project superhuman power and radiance is perhaps one of her most impressive skills.” A ballet-trained dancer who wore her hair closely cropped, Ms. Jamison often inspired comparisons with the divine. “The prototype of countless carven and sculptured goddesses” was how Olga Maynard described her in a 1972 cover article for Dance magazine. (Ms. Maynard later wrote the 1982 biography “Judith Jamison: Aspects of a Dancer.”)


Ms. Jamison with Alvin Ailey, second from left, in 1974. With them were the dancers Valery Panov and his wife, Galina Panova, who had recently immigrated to Israel from Russia.Credit...Richard Drew/Associated Press

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/arts/dance/judith-jamison-dead.html

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Damn. What a loss to the dance community although she has trained so many over the decades that her legacy will last a long time. I have seen her perform here in Philly many years ago with Alvin Ailey and his company.

Rest in Power and dance on Ms. Jamison!