When Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and COCA alum Antonio Douthit-Boyd and his fellow Ailey alum and husband Kirven Douthit-Boyd came to COCA to head up the dance department, it was easy to assume that the performing arts organization would enjoy the perks of their connection to the legendary dance troupe.
Even still, when Ailey Artistic Director Emeriti Judith Jamison came to town on November 17 to teach master classes, her presence inspired awe among the St. Louis dance community – within COCA and beyond.
Local dancers signed up for the general public master class, posting selfies of themselves drenched with sweat with Jamison unwittingly in the background.
Members of the COCAdance troupe were overwhelmed by her presence, but not to the point where they lost focus. The company that consists mostly of teens and young adults put their best feet forward to make their teachers proud while in the presence of a dance deity.
Jamison was Alvin Ailey’s muse before she succeeded him as artistic director of the company that bears his name. She was a soloist with Ailey for 15 years. Before his untimely passing in 1989, Ailey tapped Jamison to lead the company’s creative arm and continue the legacy she was an integral part of as a performer. She did so for more than 20 years, until her retirement in 2011.
As she worked closely with the COCAdance students, it was clear early on how Ailey separated itself from dance companies around the world with its spot-on precision and attention to detail.
“Burn up this floor – and please remember that I haven’t seen you do this,” Jamison said as they prepared to start the movement. “Pump some of your 2016 juice in this old ballet. Enjoy the moment of this [intro], because the rest is frenzy.”
They started off slow and delicate, but an orchestrated chaos of movement ensued soon after the beginning. “Keep up as much as humanly possible,” Jamison said. With about three dozen dancers on the floor, she noticed the smallest of hiccups.
“That girl over there is a bit off-beat,” Jamison said to Kirven as he dutifully took notes. Antonio was capturing video footage to review with the students and incorporate Jamison’s notes into future rehearsals.
The experience was a taste of what they can expect to experience when they enter the dance world full-throttle.
Jamison was straightforward, but not mean. She let them know her expectations of each movement – and whether or not they met them.
Nothing slipped by her watchful eye as they made their way through the physically demanding routine. There would be no cheating.
“You can’t just throw the step away. You have to finish it,” Jamison told them. “Give equal value to every step you take. When you dance, you speak in complete sentences. This is a conversation between you and the audience, and you don’t say something profound and then just go ‘blah, blah, blah’ at the end.”
Watching Kirven and Jamison in action with the students yielded a new appreciation for the art form. Every single body part is in play – from the direction of the dancers’ eyes to the position of their fingers during an arm movement and where the feet point when the movement is complete.
“Where are the ‘attitude’ arms?” Jamison asked. “Look straight out. Don’t look down. This is one of those times you are allowed to look into the house. Where are your feet facing? We’ve got 10 different directions here.”
The fluid language of dance was her top priority.
“It’s not how long you can hold, how high you can jump or how many twists you can do,” Jamison said. “It’s about what you do before and after to complete the movement.”
Nothing was left to chance in her fine tuning.
“I love how these dancers say, ‘Yes.’” Jamison said. “In dance, you don’t say, ‘Yes,’ you do the step.”
As they prepared to part ways, Jamison expressed confidence in the troupe and her former students as their leaders.
“There are a lot of details here, but you’ve got great teachers,” Jamison said. “Listen and focus, focus, focus. You are a determined group of dancers. That’s half the battle. Be courageous and step out on what you know – and please be able to step back and laugh at yourself and say, ‘What was that?’”
