R.I.P. Judith Jamison

Dancer Judith Jamison has died age 81...

From Playbill

Dancer, choreographer, and beloved longtime artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Judith Jamison passed away November 9 "after a brief illness," The New York Times reports. She was 81.

Ms. Jamison was born May 10, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Tessie Brown Jamison and John Jamison, Sr. She began taking ballet lessons at the Judimar School of Dance at age six. After graduating from Germantown High School, Ms. Jamison enrolled at Fisk University. She eventually left Fisk to study dance and kinesiology at the Philadelphia Dance Academy.

Alvin Ailey invited Ms. Jamison to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1965. She performed as an Ailey dancer for 15 years, with celebrated performances in works including Cry, Blues Suite, Revelations, and more. Ailey wrote Cry specifically for Ms. Jamison. She also appeared as a guest performer with the San Francisco Ballet, the Swedish Royal Ballet, the Cullberg Ballet, and the Vienna State Ballet.

In 1979, Ms. Jamison made her Broadway debut as "Le Spectre de la Rose" Dancer in Béjart: Ballet of the Twentieth Century. In 1981, she appeared in the Duke Ellington musical revue Sophisticated Ladies, which also starred Gregory Hines.

Ms. Jamison began working as a choreographer in 1980. Her first ballet, Divining, premiered in 1984 with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, with numerous other works to follow, including Forgotten Time, Rift, and more. In 1988, wanting to oversee her own group of dancers, Ms. Jamison founded The Jamison Project Dance Company. The company's performances included Ms. Jamison's last solo of her performing career. Then, in 1989, Ms. Jamison took over as artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater upon Ailey's death. In 1993, she choreographed Hymn, a tribute to Ailey.

According to the Times, Ms. Jamison has no immediate surviving family members.