ALVIN AILEY DANCE THEATER
Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater’s
Danica Paulos
By Marc Alexander
Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater carries on Alvin Ailey’s pioneering legacy of uplifting, uniting and celebrating the human spirit as Ailey’s extraordinary dancers bring life to a wide variety of premieres, new productions and classic works. The company returns to Los Angeles April 15-19 with a six performance engagement at The Music Center led by Artistic Director Robert Battle with three powerful and memorable programs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
The Associated Press proclaimed that “… the timing could hardly be more apt for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s new civil rights-themed piece” ODETTA, a West Coast premiere choreographed by renowned Ailey dancer and Los Angeles native Matthew Rushing. The tribute is set to the musical repertoire of celebrated singer and civil rights activist Odetta Holmes, who was known as “the voice of the Civil Rights Movement” and anointed as “the queen of American folk music” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
We recently sat down with Danica Paulos from the company to learn more about life as an Alvin Ailey dancer.
Southern California native Danica Paulos realized early that she wanted to pursue a career in dance and through sacrifice and family support she focused, trained, and made it happen. “I made a lot of sacrifices like missing out on a social life and other experiences that a child would have but those are the choices I made. I’m from Huntington Beach and I trained in Santa Monica, which is a good forty minutes to an hour, a way depending on traffic. My grandmother would drive me, wait for me all day, and drive me back home late at night. When it boils down to it, it was worth it,” she said. Danica made the big decision to move East at a pivotal time in her life. “By my senior year of high school the timing was right and I auditioned for the Ailey School and got in. I moved to New York at seventeen years-old because the ultimate goal was to dance for a company like Ailey in New York,” she said.
Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater first appeared at The Music Center in 1998 and is one of the most popular dance companies to regularly perform in this series, having previously been presented 5 times.
Tickets for Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater are priced from $34-$138 and are available at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office, 135 North Grand Avenue. Tickets are also available by calling (213) 972-0711 and online at www.musiccenter.org/ailey For groups of 10 or more, call (213) 972-8555 or email MCgroupsales@musiccenter.org
About the Author:
Marc Alexander is a Los Angeles-based writer, photographer and purveyor of urban culture.