Black History Guardians™
honors Judith Jamison (1943 – 2024) who is best known for her exceptional dance
performances with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater which she joined in 1965.
She would later become the troupe’s artistic director and most loyal and championne
dévouée.
Tall, beautiful, and graceful,
Jamison would wow audiences in productions such as “Cry” and “Revelations”. Although
she was classically trained in ballet, Jamison knew that everything about her
was different from most people in the world of professional dance. In her
autobiography (1993), Dancing Spirit, Jamison said of herself, “I was
the antithesis of the small-boned, demure dancer with a classically feminine
shape.”
Jamison left Ailey’s troupe in
1980 to star in “Sophisticated Ladies”, which opened on Broadway the following
year. New York Times’ journalist, Frank Rich’s lauded Jamison’s performance
saying she was “a mesmerizing incarnation of 1920s Cotton Club glamour.”
When Jamison’s career on Broadway
faltered, she returned to the place that catapulted her to fame, but this time
as the choreographer of “Divining”. In 1989, after her mentor and friend died
from AIDS, she became its artistic director. Under Jamison’s leadership, her
beloved troupe got out of debt and began to thrive both financially, and in popularity.
Jamison will be remembered,
not just as a distinguished champion for Black dancers, but for promoting cultural
diversity in the arts. Her unparalleled commitment was recognized by numerous organizations
including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Medal of Arts, and
the Handel Medallion, the highest cultural award from New York city.
Born on May 10, 1943, in
Philadelphia, Jamison became an ancestor on November 9, 2024, after a short
illness. Her indelible contribution to the world of dance will continue through
the thousands of people she mentored throughout her long, illustrious career. During
an interview in 1976, Jamison revealed that the way she danced was a spiritual
expression, “I believe that there’s a special gift God gave me, and I’m using
it.”
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