Judith Jamison

Judith Ann Jamison born May 10 1943 is an American dancer and choreographer She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Judith Jamison was born in 1943 to Tessie Brown Jamison and John Jamison Sr and grew up in Philadelphia Pennsylvania with her parents and older brother Her father taught her to play the piano and violin She was exposed to the prominent art culture in Philadelphia from a very early age At the age of six she began her dance training at Judimar School of Dance There she studied with Marion Cuyjet who became one of Jamisons early mentors Under Cuyjets tutelage Jamison studied classical ballet and modern dance The Judimar studios were treated as a holy place and there was always a sense of performance and theatricality in Cuyjets classes By the age of eight Jamison began dancing on pointe and started taking classes in tap acrobatics and Dunham technique which was referred to as primitive A few years later Cuyjet began sending Jamison to other teachers to advance her dance education She learned the Cechetti method from Antony Tudor founder of the Philadelphia Ballet Guild and studied with Delores Brown Abelson a graduate of Judimar who pursued a performance career in New York City before returning to Philadelphia to teach Throughout high school Jamison was also member of numerous sports organizations the Glee Club and the Philadelphia String Ensemble She studied Dalcroze Eurhythmics a system that teaches rhythm through movement At the age of 17 Jamison graduated from Judimar and began her collegiate studies at Fisk University After three semesters there she transferred to the Philadelphia Dance Academy now the University of the Arts where she studied dance with James Jamieson Nadia Chilkovsky and Yuri Gottschalk In addition to her technique classes she took courses in Labanotation kinesiology and other dance studies During this time she also learned the Horton technique from Joan Kerr which required great strength balance and concentration In 1992 Jamison was inducted into Delta Sigma Theta sorority as an honorary member In 1964 after seeing Jamison in a master class Agnes de Mille invited her to come to New York to perform in a new work that she was choreographing for American Ballet Theatre The Four Marys Jamison immediately accepted the offer and spent the next few months working with the company When the performances ended and she found herself in New York without a job Jamison attended an audition held by Donald McKayle She felt that she performed very poorly in the audition and claimed I felt as if I had two left feet However a few days later a friend of McKayles Alvin Ailey called Jamison to offer her a place in his company Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Source Article Judith Jamison from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30