Judith Jamison on Icons, Failures and Persistence

Judith Jamison (Photo: Andrew Eccles)

Here is an excerpt from a guest article about Judith Jamison, one of my heroines, contributed by Barb Heffner to HelloLadies.com, a website created by Liz O’Donnell. To read the complete article, check out other resources, and sign up for free email updates, please click here.

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In a Q&A with Maria Hinojosa, following her presentation at the Simmons Leadership Conference last week [April 28, 2011], Judith Jamison, Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, explained she doesn’t think of herself as an icon. “I mean, I gotta go home and do the laundry tonight. I don’t think icons do laundry!”

For a woman with a bushel of awards, including the National Medal of Arts, she’s charmingly down to earth – and charismatic as they come.

In speaking of what she looks for in dancers, she said she’s not of the “To-Live-is-to-Dance-and-to-Dance-is-to-Live” school. She wants her dancers to dance from the inside out, not the outside in. “What can you tell me about that light within you?” she asked. Jamison ardently believes that dance is about spiritual reciprocity (loosely defined as “a receiving that results in a giving”). “That’s what we’re doing here today – we’re sharing and absorbing from one another.”

In her entire career, Jamison had but one audition – at which she failed. “When you get to an audition and they say, ‘Thank you very much,’ you’re supposed to leave. I didn’t know that.” So she stayed through the entire audition. But Alvin Ailey had seen her tryout and approached her afterwards, asking her to join his company. “That’s where I was supposed to be. Throughout my life, I’ve had great faith that I was guided and that I was prepared.”

She is also a woman of great persistence. ““If a door wasn’t open to me, I had to open my own doors. I was being bolstered by these angels without wings.” If you hit an obstacle, she advised, you have two choices. You can either press on at that moment, or take a break. “But take that break, and then press through. You don’t give up on your stuff; you can’t back down on your stuff. No one can eclipse the light that burns in us.”

Jamison is passionate about kids being transformed by dance. She’s justifiably proud of a dance program implemented in many schools (AileyDance Kids) and AileyCamp, which uses dance to enhance the lives of underserved children. It has given thousands of kids a transformative experience through disciplined dance training, creative writing instruction, personal development and communication workshops.

In a quote on the Alvin Ailey site, one camper said, “The teachers taught me that when you dance you should dance with your soul, mind, body, and spirit. Dancing is not just a way of moving. It’s a way to communicate with each other.”

Jamison must be pleased that her student perfectly captured her philosophy of dance.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

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