Dancing Spirit
An Autobiography
Description:... Judith Jamison is, in every sense, a towering figure. Her commanding physical presence, elegant manner, and extraordinary technique have made her not only a true superstar of American dance and an historic innovator in her field, but also a beacon of inspiration to African-Americans, to women, and to people of all origins around the world. Dancing Spirit presents this phenomenal woman's story in her own direct and uncompromising voice: her early years in Philadelphia, where she began studying dance at the age of six; her discovery by Agnes de Mille, who gave her her first professional role in The Four Marys; years of frustration and struggle in a field that favored petite, fair, white women; her legendary collaboration with Alvin Ailey, reaching its apogee with the landmark solo piece Cry; global success and fame with the Ailey company, touring the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa; performing on Broadway in the musical Sophisticated Ladies; the formation of her own troupe, the Jamison Project; and her return to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre as artistic director after its founder's tragic death in 1989. Dancing Spirit teems with vivid portraits of the artists and individuals Judith Jamison has worked with and known throughout the years: Miss Marion Cuyjet, her first dance teacher, and still an important figure in her life; Agnes de Mille; Alvin Ailey; Jessye Norman; dancers James Truitte, Geoffrey Holder, Carmen de Lavallade, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, to name only a few; and many others. And in Dancing Spirit Judith Jamison talks frankly about the price exacted by a dancer's nomadic life - rootlessness, fleeting relationships, the obsession with physicalbeauty. Illustrated with more than sixty photographs, Dancing Spirit is a candid and immediate self-portrait of a unique American artist whose work has left an indelible mark on the world of dance, and whose life and career are a monument to her passion, her pride, and her vision.
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