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(NewsNation) — Once placed in the back row at high school shows, Judith Jamison overcame this and other instances of racism to become the first African American woman to direct a major modern dance company.
Jamison was born on May 10, 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a Germantown suburb. At the age of six, her mother put her into lessons at Marion Cuyjet’s Judimar School of Dance so Jamison would learn “to not be uncomfortable … in her body, according to the University of Virginia.
While dancing in high school, Jamison participated in a style of dancing called “eurythmics,” according to the University of Virginia. Although she was placed in the back corner in the last row, Jamison said she “knew I was the best thing on that stage and I was also the blackest thing on that stage.” Still, she was able to channel her “fury” into “something that was fabulous.”
“If they didn’t see it then, then certainly 12 years later they saw it,” Jamison would go on to say.
After high school, Jamison went to Fisk University but later transferred to the Philadelphia Dance Academy (now called The University of Arts).
A combination of Jamison’s height (5 feet, 10 inches), her elegance and striking presence helped her stand out from other dancers, Encyclopedia Britannica wrote.
Jamison went to New York City and danced with the American Ballet Theatre, before joining the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Ailey called Jamison just three days after her audition to ask her to join the company because of her “innate musicality.”
She performed her 1965 debut with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in “Conga Tango Palace.” The troupe had been touring the country, but despite early critical acclaim, they faced huge obstacles with outward racism against them.
“We couldn’t actually get decent food because it wasn’t being served to us,” Jamison told the Los Angeles Times in 2019. “And it was being served with attitude … you know, like sour milk and cold coffee.”
Despite this, Jamison said Ailey was able to create a welcoming space for all kinds of dancers.
“Everybody calls us a Black dance company … but this company has always been a multicultural, mixed company,” Jamison told The Times.
A 15-minute solo dance about the struggles of Black women Ailey choreographed for Jamison in 1971 became her signature piece, and she performed it both nationally and internationally.
In 1980, Jamison left the Ailey company to star in the Broadway musical “Sophisticated Ladies,” while also beginning to choreograph her own dances. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premiered her first work in 1984.
Other works by Jamison included: “Just Call Me Dance,” “Into the Life,” “Hymn,” “Sweet Release,” “Double Exposure,” “Love Stories” and “Among Us (Private Spaces: Public Places).”
The Jamison Project, her own 12-member troupe, was established in 1989, and a year later, after Ailey died, Jamison became the artistic director of the Ailey troupe and school. This made her the first Black woman to direct a modern dance company.
Other accolades Jamison received include a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999 and the National Medal of Arts in 2001. The Ailey troupe named her artistic director emeritus in 2011, and then in 2013 Jamison became the 50th inductee into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in 2013.