Description

Born Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaWhen she was twenty-one, Judith Jamison was selected by Agnes de Mille to appear in de Mille’s The Four Marys with the American Ballet Theatre. She joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1965 and quickly became a principal dancer. Her height (5’10”) gave her a regal bearing, and her electrifying performance in Cry, which Ailey wrote for her in 1971, propelled her to international stardom.Jamison danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Ailey’s 1976 Pax de Duke, performed to the music of Duke Ellington, and appeared in companies around the world. In 1980 she starred with Gregory Hines in the hit Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies.She was artistic director of the Ailey company from 1989 to 2011, once explaining, “I don’t feel as though I’m standing in anyone’s shoes. I’m standing on Alvin’s shoulders.”

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution