Alvin Ailey Dance Theater visits Toronto

3 February 2012

Guillermo Asca of New York’s world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater gives a dance demonstration to students from Scarborough’s Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts.

"This is honestly one of the best moments of my life," says high school student Gray Monczka. He was one of almost 200 students from Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts attending the private demonstration and Q & A session with several dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Scarborough's Wexford is home to many budding artists -- and the alma mater of such stars as Nina Dobrev of The Vampire Diaries. It's almost unheard of to be in such a large group of teenagers and not see a single one bent over a cell phone, texting furiously, but that's the kind of attention and awe the Alvin Ailey dancers command.

The dance theater formed in 1958 during the U.S. civil rights movement from the vision of Alvin Ailey, an African American from Texas who wanted to showcase and celebrate the American modern dance heritage -- especially the contribution that African Americans have made to that art form. Ailey named a former dancer from the theater, the phenomenal Judith Jamison, as his successor in 1989, the year he passed away. Last year, the group announced Robert Battle would be the new artistic director, making him only the third director in over five decades of historic performances worldwide.

Called a vital American cultural ambassador to the world by Congress, the group has performed in 71 countries and visited Canada several times. During these tours the group often does community outreach such as the one the Wexford students participated in. Led by longtime Alvin Ailey dancer Guillermo Asca, lucky students got to try their moves on stage -- including Monczka -- and were privy to some solid advice during the Q & A session at the end.

Asca told them not to burn any bridges as the dance community is a small one and word of mouth recommendations have started many careers. But perhaps his most poignant advice was to give back to your community, as the Alvin Ailey dancers proved was a rule they adhere to that day with their free one-on-one session with the very happy Wexford students.

The three days of performances by the Alvin Ailey dancers at Toronto's Sony Centre for the Performing Arts were one of several acts celebrating Black History Month at the centre in February.