Arriving on the UC Berkeley campus April 7-12 for its annual residency presented by Cal Performances, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2026 is led by new artistic director Alicia Graf Mack. As just the fourth artistic director in the internationally acclaimed dance company\u2019s nearly 70-year old history, Mack joins elite company.<\/p>\n
Alvin Ailey founded the company in 1958 and in 1989 passed the leadership to the venerable dancer, choreographer, and educator Judith Jamison. Jamison led the company for 21 years before passing the baton to Robert Battle in 2011. He served for 12 years and departed the position in 2023.<\/p>\n
Importantly, both Jamison and Battle continued Ailey\u2019s vision that included the company not be a simple repository for his 79 ballets. Under their leadership, the company expanded its repertoire while continuing to bring greatest visibility to Ailey\u2019s legacy works and the richness of African-American history and culture.<\/p>\n
Mack appears cut from the same cloth, a fact made evident in this year\u2019s four programs that include six Bay Area premieres, a reimagined solo and an entirely new ensemble work, as well as the return of Ailey\u2019s spectacular, beloved \u201cRevelations,\u201d which closes all but one program.<\/p>\n
Mack established her career as a renowned, principle dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem before joining the Ailey company as a principal dancer for eight seasons, from 2005-2008 and\u00a0 2011-2014. Invited into the company by Jamison, Mack says in an interview that former artistic director\u2019s death in 2024 represents a profound loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve often said, she was our North Star; the person you saw as a young person who allowed you to affirm your dreams,\u201d Mack says. \u201cMs. Jamison was that person for me since I was a child. Coming to the company (as an adult), the opportunity to work with her was an affirmation of the past. I\u2019d been following her with the understanding that if she could do it, with her long, brown body, I could do it too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mack is biracial and at 5-feet, 10 inches, she is tall, especially for a professional ballet dancer. Even so, she says Jamison never asked her to be anything other than genuine.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy presence, height, look, and strengths were valued. Even after I retired fully from dancing and went into leadership roles and became a wife and a mother, she continued to be a mentor. My daughter is dancing now and I\u2019d send pictures to her. She\u2019d say \u2018good job being a mom\u2019 and no one had better me-mojis than she did. I miss that every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another guiding light in Mack\u2019s life is her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds clich\u00e9, but my mother has always been an important figure in my leadership journey. She never pushed me to do one thing over another. She created an environment and modeled herself as a woman of incredible grace and grit. She\u2019s also tall, my height. My father is African-American, my mother is white and a Christian woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in San Jose, and growing up as an interracial child in a predominantly white environment in Columbia, Maryland, she treasures the example set by her mother. \u201cShe showed me how to walk with pride, purpose, and an understanding of a gifted future. She was not a dance mom, but always said I had a God-given gift that comes with great responsibility. The way you carry yourself in an audition, on stage, and in rehearsal is always giving thanks to god. My presence onstage is more than being a great dancer; it\u2019s representing something larger than myself. I am an ambassador for our culture, the field, and certainly, for Black America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mack\u2019s academic background further boosts her leadership capabilities. She is a Columbia University graduate (magna cum laude, honors in history) and holds an MA in nonprofit management from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining Ailey as artistic director, she was the Dean and Director of the Dance Division at The Juilliard School from 2018-2025.<\/p>\n
Which means a compendium of influences hold sway as she helms the company.\u00a0From academic pedigree to injuries that resulted in ankle, back, and three knee surgeries to folks who tell her, \u201cI adored Arnie Graf,\u201d her community organizer\/civil rights activist father to even what her pli\u00e9 reveals, Mack extracts applicable life\/work lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy pli\u00e9 is nothing special,\u201d is her first answer about a dancer\u2019s bending knee that launches the beginning, ending, and transitions between every maneuver in dance. Encouraged to dig into the reply, she says, \u201cI suppose it does demonstrate the roadblocks I\u2019ve experienced. There\u2019s my determination to be correct, to endure difficult ups and downs as anybody would who\u2019s pursuing a big dream. Every setback I had in my body I gained experience that led me to where I am today. Life for me has to be peaks and valleys. Now, in a leadership position, I have to see the whole picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highlighting special features of a few of this year\u2019s dances, Mack says Medhi Walerski\u2019s complete \u201cBlink of an Eye\u201d premiered with Netherlands Dance Theatre in 2011 and involved elements of theater and more. She invited Walerksi to Juilliard and asked him make a version using only the \u201cdance-y, virtuoso\u201d sections using\u00a0 J.S. Bach\u2019s violin sonatas and partita. \u201cCurating for this season alongside Mathew Rushing, our associate artistic director, we thought this would make a shiny gem. It\u2019s beautifully structured, touching, musical. The Ailey dancers with their artistic maturity take it to a whole other level and continue to keep it fresh while stretching the limits of their physicality. They go to the edge in each performance. There\u2019s technical excellence, virtuosity, and the beauty of the human body taken to extreme physicality.\u201d<\/p>\n
A reimagined work and returning favorites demonstrate the company continues to stand on the artistic vision and principles established by Ailey, according to Mack. A new work, \u201cJazz Island,\u201d Mack suggest presents the dancers with new opportunities as it celebrates the richness of Caribbean culture and classic tales from Black origins. \u201cThis is our mythology, rooted in a clear cultural aesthetic. It calls for character development, gesture, and storytelling, so it provides a point of departure from more abstract works.\u201d<\/p>\n
With timers and assistants signaling the conversation must end, Mack adds a postscript. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to return to Berkeley. Zellerbach Hall was always one of my favorite stages to dance on and I love the sense of community whenever we come. We have daytime performances for school-age children that are as important as the nighttime performances. The spirit of the organization is embedded in all we do. It\u2019s a special opportunity for me to return and lead the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER<\/p>\n
Presented by Cal Performances<\/p>\n
When & where: April 7-12; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley<\/p>\n