In celebration of the exhibition Edges of Ailey, Matthew Rushing, the interim Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, takes us back to his first time seeing the company perform at the Wiltern Theater at twelve-years-old. Matthew discusses the memories of his mother taking him to see the performance, the experience of sitting in the front row, and the profound impact this moment had on the course of his life.

In celebration of the exhibition Edges of Ailey, artist Mickalene Thomas recalls her first encounter with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the influence it has had on her life and work. Thomas created the work Revelation, a portrait of Katherine Dunham, specifically for the exhibition. In this minisode, Thomas shares an experience of seeing Revelations performed by the AILEY company for the first time in New York in 1995. Thomas also describes moments of overlap between the language of dance and her art practice, and what any artist can take away from Alvin Ailey’s work.

In this episode, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe talks about documenting the Gullah Geechee people of Daufuskie Island. Over a five-year period, the photographs reveal a change over Daufuskie as developers and Hurricane David make their way to these last Gullah Islands.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jeanne-moutoussamy-ashe-last-gullah-islands