Judith Jamison

Judith Jamison

Born: May 10, 1943
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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 Jamison's early mentors. Under Cuyjet's 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 Cuyjet's 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 McKayle's, 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 CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies for Judith Jamison...

Ailey
Title: Ailey
Character: Self
Released: July 23, 2021
Type: Movie
Alvin Ailey was a visionary artist who found salvation through dance. Told in his own words and through the creation of a dance inspired by his life, this immersive portrait follows a man who, when confronted by a world that refused to embrace him, determined to build one that would.
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Title: Tamron Hall
Character: Self - Guest
Released: September 9, 2019
Type: TV
Former news host and journalist Tamron Hall discusses all things topical and engages those she interviews in thorough meaningful and entertaining conversations.
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Title: Trailblazer Honors
Character: Self
Released: June 27, 2014
Type: TV
One-hour annual event that celebrates leaders at the forefront of LGBTQ equality.
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Richard Strauss - Josephs Legende
Title: Richard Strauss - Josephs Legende
Released: July 10, 2007
Type: Movie
Josephs Legende, Opus 63, is an “opera without words” or “ballet-drama” composed by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929). The story attempts to reconstruct a particular biblical passage that was given prominence in the Old Testament (Genesis 37-50) centered around the first Joseph’s, parts of the so-called Egyptian episode and the incident in Potiphar’s house (Genesis 37: 36 and 39: 1-23). Although in the biblical story there are no great details about such episode they can be easily imagined, as Strauss and Hofmannsthal did in fact; please refer to Genesis 39: 11-19 for more specifics.
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A Tribute to Alvin Ailey
Title: A Tribute to Alvin Ailey
Character: Presenter
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
Alvin Ailey played a key role in the growth of modern dance in USA and his company, founded in 1958, is one of the USA’s oldest dance troupes as well as one of the most youthful and vital on the dance scene. In this two-part program, members of Ailey's dance company celebrate his memory by performing three works choreographed by Ailey himself, as well as a special ballet tribute choreographed by Ulysses Dove. Each piece is introduced by Judith Jamison, the dancer and choreographer whose career was nurtured to stardom by Ailey, and who was, at the time of this production, Artistic Director of the company. The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is uniquely eclectic in range, repertory, and style. As a choreographer, Ailey explored the black experience and went beyond, finding universal human truths in all his work.
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Title: American Masters
Character: Self
Released: June 23, 1986
Type: TV
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
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An Evening with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Title: An Evening with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Character: Self
Released: May 1, 1986
Type: Movie
Dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet equally graceful and poetic. DIVINING was Judith Jamison's first major work as a choreographer for Ailey, evoking a strong feeling for African tribal ritual, is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music. REVELATIONS, often describes as the company's signature tune, has become an American classic. It expresses Ailey's intense feelings for his roots, with Ailey's vivid "blood memories" of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression. Set to Modern Jazz, THE STUCK-UP takes place in modern-day Harlem, about the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs. CRY, choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison, is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey's tribute to black women and inspires moving emotions with its portrayal of struggle, anger and most importantly, its feeling of celebration.
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Title: The Cosby Show
Released: September 20, 1984
Type: TV
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.
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Night of 100 Stars
Title: Night of 100 Stars
Character: Self
Released: March 8, 1982
Type: Movie
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
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Title: The Kennedy Center Honors
Character: Self
Released: December 28, 1978
Type: TV
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.
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Title: Numéro un
Character: Self
Released: April 5, 1975
Type: TV
A French variety show.
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Alvin Ailey: Memories and Visions
Title: Alvin Ailey: Memories and Visions
Character: Self
Released: May 6, 1974
Type: Movie
Presents selections from the major works of choreographer Alvin Ailey as performed by his City Center Dance Theater to background music ranging from modern blues to classical music to traditional spirituals. The choreography is a reflection of the many varied influences in Alvin Ailey's life, influences that are both seen and felt through the vivid performance of the company, which includes the world-renowned artist Judith Jamison.
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Batouk
Title: Batouk
Character: Self
Released: January 31, 1968
Type: Movie
This uneven and uninspired documentary of Africa is a collection from various stock footage. Female dancers in mod clothes dance on the Eiffel Tower in comparison to the primitive dances of native Africans. A lone runner trains for a marathon, and a few animals are shown in their natural habitat. Commentary and modern jazz and pop music help to make this seem much longer than 66 minutes.