A BENEFIT PERFORMANCE AND PARTY HONORS PHILANTHROPIST ELAINE WYNN & THE ELAINE P. WYNN & FAMILY FOUNDATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 AT 7 PM
One-Night-Only Program Will Include Two Merce Cunningham Centennial Solos and Special Performance to Memorialize Opera Great Jessye Norman
NEW YORK – November 11, 2019 —Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will launch a five-week holiday season on December 4 with a star-studded gala benefit performance at New York City Center and party at the New York Hilton Midtown Grand Ballroom. The special evening celebrates philanthropist Elaine Wynn and the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation. Wynn’s generous contributions have supported the creation of new works as well as the Elaine Wynn & Family Education Wing, which in 2017 added three floors – featuring four dance studios and two classrooms – to The Joan Weill Center for Dance, New York’s largest building dedicated to dance.
Celebration Launches Ailey’s Holiday Season at New York City Center, December 4 – January 5
The one-night-only performance at 7pm will feature two Merce Cunningham Centennial Solos that were part of this year’s 100th anniversary celebration of his birth – marking the first time this landmark choreographer’s work will be seen on the Ailey stage – as well as a special excerpt of Artistic Director Robert Battle’s Channels to honor and memorialize opera great Jessye Norman, set to her recorded performance of a Johannes Brahms lied – a 19th–century German art song. Following the inspiring finale of Revelations, performed with live music, prominent figures in the worlds of entertainment, business, philanthropy and politics will join Robert Battle and Ailey’s extraordinary dancers for a dinner-dance in the Hilton New York Grand Ballroom.
The event’s co-chairs are Emily & Len Blavatnik, Paulette Mullings Bradnock & Howard Bradnock, Mellody Hobson & George Lucas, Daria L. & Eric J. Wallach, and Joan & Sandy Weill. Proceeds from the annual benefit will support the creation of new works, scholarships to The Ailey School, and Ailey’s educational programs for children. Call 212-405-9031 or visit alvinailey.org/support/opening-night-gala-benefit for tickets.
Ailey’s holiday season features special programs such as an evening celebrating The Ailey School’s 50th Anniversary(December 10); a tribute performance for Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya, which will highlight his extensive career of nearly five decades as he concludes his final season with the Company (December 22); and world premieres Greenwood (December 6), a powerful work by Donald Byrd that draws on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and Ode (December 10), offering a meditation on the beauty and fragility of life in a time of growing gun violence by Ailey dancer and Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts.
Tickets for the full season running December 4 through January 5, starting at $29, are on sale now at the New York City Center Box Office, through CityTix® at (212) 581-1212, or at www.alvinailey.org or www.nycitycenter.org.
