Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 2–3, 2024, 7:30pm
Thursday, April 4, 2024, 7pm
Friday, April 5, 2024, 8pm
Saturday, April 6, 2024, 2pm and 8pm
Sunday, April 7, 2024, 3pm
Zellerbach Hall
Bank of America is the Tour Sponsor of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The 2024 National Tour is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Major funding of Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation is also provided by AARP, Anonymous, American Express, Bloomberg Philanthropies, BNY Mellon, Diageo North America, Ford Foundation, Fund II Foundation, The Hearst Foundations, Howard Gilman Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Kendeda Fund, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York City Center, Prudential, The Shubert Foundation, Southern Company, and Verizon Communications.
The April 2 performance is made possible, in part, by Janice and Nicholas E. Brathwaite.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater gratefully acknowledges The Joan & Sandy Weill Global Ambassador Fund, which provides vital support for Ailey’s national and international tours.
Cal Performances is committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all—one that honors our venues as places of respite, openness, and respect. Please see the Community Agreements section on our Policies page for more information.
From the Executive and Artistic Director
As we enter the final weeks in Cal Performances’ 2023–24 season, it’s natural to take a look back and remember the highlights of a truly remarkable eight months at UC Berkeley. We will all have our favorite moments—instances when a performance seemed to leap off the stage and speak to us directly. But if such experiences are deeply personal, they also all depend on the communal act of gathering together and opening our eyes, ears, and hearts to the miracle of artistic expression. Every day throughout the world, people come to performances to celebrate what it means to be human in an increasingly impersonal world. As this particular season winds down, let me thank each and every one of you for taking part in the magic of great—and live!—music, theater, and dance.
Once again, April means one thing in particular at Cal Performances—Ailey Week—when the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns for its annual spring residency. With its relationship with UC Berkeley now in its 56th year (Ailey has visited campus every non-pandemic year since 1968), the company will present five separate programs from April 2 through April 7. The centerpiece of this year’s residency is the 2024 Gala on Thursday, April 4, with all proceeds benefiting Cal Performances’ artistic initiatives and education programs. During the week, we will also present an Ailey SchoolTime performance for K–12 students and provide an opportunity for alumni of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp to reconnect with company members. On opening night, Tuesday, April 2, I’m especially proud that Cal Performances will offer live audio descriptions and a pre-performance haptic tour for blind and visually impaired audience members.
As the season draws to a close in early May, we still have much to look forward to: gifted early-music artists like countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński with the acclaimed ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro (Apr 9) and Jordi Savall with Hespèrion XXI (Apr 12); the thunderous traditional taiko drumming of Drum Tao (Apr 11–12); superb chamber music with the Danish String Quartet and guest cellist Johannes Rostamo (Apr 13) and French ensemble Quatuor Ébène (Apr 16); a duo vocal recital with opera stars (and a husband-and-wife team to boot!) soprano Amina Edris and tenor Pene Pati, with Robert Mollicone at the piano (Apr 23); a highly anticipated return to campus by one of the most adventurous artists on the international pop music scene, the always astonishing Angélique Kidjo (Apr 26); astounding Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a special performance of J.S. Bach’s immortal Goldberg Variations (May 4); and an evening with America’s preeminent humor writer—and frequent guest of Cal Performances—David Sedaris (May 5).
And I must make special mention of the upcoming visit by our dear friends at the Mark Morris Dance Group (Apr 19–21), returning to their West Coast home away from home with a profoundly moving repertory work (2010’s Socrates) and the world premiere of a new Mark Morris creation, Via Dolorosa, set to Nico Muhly’s meditative composition The Street (performed live by harpist Parker Ramsay). In the more than 35 years since the company first appeared at UC Berkeley, Mark Morris’ dancers have treated Cal Performances audiences to the premieres of more than a dozen new Morris works, many of which have gone on to become company classics—don’t miss this chance to be part of dance history!
Finally, I hope you’ll join us on April 16, when we announce our extraordinary 2024–25 season. One major detail has already been announced—the Maria Manetti Shrem and Elizabeth Segerstrom California Orchestra Residency, when Cal Performances and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County will bring the world renowned Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin to California during spring 2025. And I can promise you many more welcome and exciting surprises when full season details are announced.
Again, thank you for joining us this season. I look forward to seeing you again in the fall.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
As we enter the final weeks in Cal Performances’ 2023–24 season, it’s natural to take a look back and remember the highlights of a truly remarkable eight months at UC Berkeley. We will all have our favorite moments—instances when a performance seemed to leap off the stage and speak to us directly. But if such experiences are deeply personal, they also all depend on the communal act of gathering together and opening our eyes, ears, and hearts to the miracle of artistic expression. Every day throughout the world, people come to performances to celebrate what it means to be human in an increasingly impersonal world. As this particular season winds down, let me thank each and every one of you for taking part in the magic of great—and live!—music, theater, and dance.
Once again, April means one thing in particular at Cal Performances—Ailey Week—when the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns for its annual spring residency. With its relationship with UC Berkeley now in its 56th year (Ailey has visited campus every non-pandemic year since 1968), the company will present five separate programs from April 2 through April 7. The centerpiece of this year’s residency is the 2024 Gala on Thursday, April 4, with all proceeds benefiting Cal Performances’ artistic initiatives and education programs. During the week, we will also present an Ailey SchoolTime performance for K–12 students and provide an opportunity for alumni of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp to reconnect with company members. On opening night, Tuesday, April 2, I’m especially proud that Cal Performances will offer live audio descriptions and a pre-performance haptic tour for blind and visually impaired audience members.
As the season draws to a close in early May, we still have much to look forward to: gifted early-music artists like countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński with the acclaimed ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro (Apr 9) and Jordi Savall with Hespèrion XXI (Apr 12); the thunderous traditional taiko drumming of Drum Tao (Apr 11–12); superb chamber music with the Danish String Quartet and guest cellist Johannes Rostamo (Apr 13) and French ensemble Quatuor Ébène (Apr 16); a duo vocal recital with opera stars (and a husband-and-wife team to boot!) soprano Amina Edris and tenor Pene Pati, with Robert Mollicone at the piano (Apr 23); a highly anticipated return to campus by one of the most adventurous artists on the international pop music scene, the always astonishing Angélique Kidjo (Apr 26); astounding Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a special performance of J.S. Bach’s immortal Goldberg Variations (May 4); and an evening with America’s preeminent humor writer—and frequent guest of Cal Performances—David Sedaris (May 5).
And I must make special mention of the upcoming visit by our dear friends at the Mark Morris Dance Group (Apr 19–21), returning to their West Coast home away from home with a profoundly moving repertory work (2010’s Socrates) and the world premiere of a new Mark Morris creation, Via Dolorosa, set to Nico Muhly’s meditative composition The Street (performed live by harpist Parker Ramsay). In the more than 35 years since the company first appeared at UC Berkeley, Mark Morris’ dancers have treated Cal Performances audiences to the premieres of more than a dozen new Morris works, many of which have gone on to become company classics—don’t miss this chance to be part of dance history!
Finally, I hope you’ll join us on April 16, when we announce our extraordinary 2024–25 season. One major detail has already been announced—the Maria Manetti Shrem and Elizabeth Segerstrom California Orchestra Residency, when Cal Performances and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County will bring the world renowned Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin to California during spring 2025. And I can promise you many more welcome and exciting surprises when full season details are announced.
Again, thank you for joining us this season. I look forward to seeing you again in the fall.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances
About the Company
When Alvin Ailey and a small group of African American dancers took the stage on March 30, 1958, at New York City’s 92nd Street Y, the engagement was for one night only, but it turned out to be the start of a new era in the arts. Ailey envisioned a company dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving the uniqueness of the African American cultural experience. He became one of the trailblazers of modern dance, and the work of his company grew to encompass education, community outreach, and cultural diplomacy. To date, the company has gone on to perform for an estimated 25 million people at theaters in 48 states and 71 countries on six continents—as well as millions more through television, film, and online. More than 270 works by over 100 choreographers have been part of the Ailey repertory. In 2008, a US Congressional resolution designated the company as “a vital American cultural ambassador to the world.” Before his untimely death in 1989, Ailey named Judith Jamison as his successor, and over the next 21 years, she brought the company to unprecedented success. Jamison, in turn, personally selected Robert Battle to succeed her in 2011.
