As long as there are dancers around who love to dance, there will be an Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. We miss him so much, but he's alive as soon as you see a dancer hit the stage.
People don't remember me for how high my legs went, even though they went up very high, and how many pirouettes I did. They don't remember me for that. They remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. It's an indelible memory on the heart and in the mind.
My idea for the Jamison Project was rather like a pickup company. The idea was to give the dancers a taste of the menu. Today, dancers need to try as many companies as possible without having a drop-dead loyalty to me or anyone else. They like to have the leeway to go their own way.
Every dancer lives on the threshold of chucking it.
Maybe its a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to be the best.
I haven't had a family, but I don't think of that as a sacrifice: my dancers are my family.
If you look at a dancer in silence, his or her body will be the music. If you turn the music on, that body will become an extension of what you're hearing.
Alvin knew what I would do with it because we worked together for such a long time. It's part of my blood and part of who I am as a human being. Alvin's presence is felt by us all, even the new dancers who never worked with him. And if we do our jobs well, that continues the vision.