A dancer to the end, Jamison said 'through dance we're as close to God as we're going to get - until he calls us home.'
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 11:03PMFormer Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performer and director Judith Jamison was honored with a celebration of life on Wednesday full of music, dance and love." Judith Jamison once said dance is bigger than the physical body think bigger than that. When you extend your arm it doesn't stop at the end of your fingertips because you're dancing bigger than that. You're dancing spirit," said Ailey Board Chair Daria Wallach.
She was a dancer, choreographer, actress, an Emmy winner and recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors - who first performed on Broadway in 1979."Taking dance to the people, in theaters gymnasiums, from basketball courts, to opera houses around the U.S., Europe and the world," said Ailey II Artistic Director Emerita Sylvia Waters.
"When our first season was over with them in New York, Judy tells me, 'you're family now.' Judy was a part of my initiation and to the world a new level of artistic excellence," said actress and author Anna Deavere Smith."There was Judy, sitting on my stoop on 11th Street a welcome committee of one, when I and my newborn son came home from the hospital, with a bottle of champagne no less," Waters said.
There was a lot of laughter Wednesday - just like in one of her last interviews at age 80 last year with Eyewitness News reporter Kemberly Richardson. A dancer to the end, Jamison said "through dance we're as close to God as we're going to get - until he calls us home."
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