INTERVIEW: Jeroboam Bozeman lives out his dreams with Alvin Ailey company
Photo: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Jeroboam Bozeman will perform in Ode. Photo courtesy of Andrew Eccles / Provided by AAADT with permission.
There’s an excitement in the air when Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premieres a new work for its dedicated fanbase. The dancers, working for weeks with a choreographer on the new routine, must embody the movements of the piece and make it indistinguishable in skill and execution from the well-known repertory of the world-famous company. That’s a tall order, and yet the talented dancers of Alvin Ailey have been doing just that for years.
The company’s latest world premiere is Ode, with choreography by Jamar Roberts, a dancer with Alvin Ailey and recently announced resident choreographer. Audiences can catch this new socially-conscious piece Tuesday, Dec. 10 at New York City Center, where AAADT has set up for their annual run of holiday performances. Ode will be paired with Memoria and the signature piece Revelations.
At the center of the stage for Ode, and many other dances throughout the New York season, will be Jeroboam Bozeman, who is celebrating his seventh anniversary with Ailey. These New York shows are especially important to the performer because he originally comes from Brooklyn, so dancing in Midtown Manhattan is something of a homecoming.
“I started in Ailey II,” Bozeman said in a recent phone interview. “I auditioned for the first company, didn’t get in and then was hired through the second company. I stayed in the second company for a year under the direction of … Troy Powell, and then the following year I was accepted into the first company in 2013.”
Dancing for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is an experience that causes Bozeman to constantly pinch himself. Each day he is grateful that he can continue the legacy of Ailey, an African-American dancer and choreographer who forever changed the scope of dance throughout the world. The company that he founded celebrates diversity and has provided countless opportunities for African-American artists, beginning way back when Ailey led a group of dancers in March 1958 at the 92nd Street Y. Since those early days, the company has gone on to be named “a vital American cultural ambassador to the world,” according to a U.S. congressional resolution in 2008.
Ailey started the company and upon his death in 1989 was succeeded by Judith Jamison, who served as artistic director for 21 years before handing the reins to Robert Battle in 2011, according to press notes.
“I am absolutely over the moon about being part of Alvin Ailey,” Bozeman said about this storied history. “Sometimes I pinch myself, and even now being here for seven years, it goes by so quickly. But each day I’m really, really grateful that I can say I’m part of a legacy that has such a richness, and I’m really, really grateful that I can say that I’m a part of this organization, a part of this company.”
This New York City Center season will have Bozeman performing in almost everything the company has to offer audiences. Some dances of note: the world premiere of Donald Byrd’s Greenwood, which references a tragedy that occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921; the company premiere of BUSK by Aszure Barton; and the company premiere of Camille A. Brown’s City of Rain, which honors the struggle and grace of losing a friend.
“Everything under the sun,” Bozeman said of his performances. “I’m doing backflips, front flips, splits — no, I’m joking. I’m pretty much dancing everything this season. … I’m excited because I’ll be in a lot of it.”
Bozeman and his fellow dancers have been working with choreographer Jamar Roberts on Ode for about a month. The 17-minute piece addresses gun violence in the United States, including incidents of police-involved shootings.
“The way that the process works is usually each dancer auditions for the different rep that comes in within the company, and then the choreographer selects who it is that they would like to work with,” he said. “So I knew that I was working with Jamar in Ode since the company had started back after a five-week break. … Jamar Roberts, who is also a current company member and was recently given the title of resident choreographer, is choreographing his second work, Ode, for the company. This ballet, to me it speaks volumes just because he is paying homage to victims of gun violence, so we’re thinking in particular of stories like Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland, Philando Castillo. These are people that we’ve lost to gun violence and in particular police brutality, so the fact that Jamar has decided to create this ballet in honor of these people that we’ve lost to gun violence is incredible. I am honored because it speaks to something that means a lot to me as an artist and a dancer navigating through the world. Here it is, we’re getting an opportunity to perform works and ballets that the dancers can connect to and that are relevant at the current moment. I’m really, really excited to be a part of Ode in particular.”
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has always addressed aspects of society and identity through its work. The dancers and choreographers are aware of the world around them and respond with thoughtful, movement-based commentary that can stir the heart, shock the senses and flex the brain.
“I think that was one of the reasons that I fell in love with the company,” Bozeman said. “The history of the organization has always been about putting a mirror up to the world. Mr. Ailey said that himself. He wants to put a mirror up to the world and show them how beautiful they are, and I think in the realization of understanding of what beauty is, you have to take it all in — the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s something that we as Americans are dealing with. We kind of don’t want to address it, and I think art makes us do that. It makes us have the conversation, and I think it’s beautiful that creators are creating art that speaks to the current times. I think Nina Simone said it is best. She said, ‘Art is supposed to reflect the times,’ so I think it’s beautiful that here we are, getting works and ballets about things that are current and that we’re dealing with in the world. I think it’s beautiful.”
Bozeman said he is a big fan of Roberts’ choreography. The two have shared a stage together as fellow dancers, and that mutual respect carries over when Roberts is creating dance vocabulary for a new routine. Put simply, Bozeman said Roberts “can dance.”
“If you’ve seen [Ailey] in previous years, you know Jamar Roberts,” Bozeman said. “He’s one of the biggest men, and he moves beautifully. And as someone who is a taller man, it’s inspiring, and it’s motivating, and it’s refreshing to be around artists and people that you feel like you connect to. Working with him has just been incredible. It’s really been incredible. It’s been challenging, just because the vocabulary is very specific, but what I love about Jamar’s work is he gives you the room to express yourself freely.”
Bozeman speaks with confidence about his dance career — and he should given his wonderful achievements over the years — but he still gets nervous before a world premiere. He said when learning all of the dances on display there is so much information he needs to mentally process that it can be overwhelming, but he welcomes the challenge.
“I think if I didn’t have the butterflies, it wouldn’t be normal,” he said. “I think the butterflies that I get, or the nervousness that I get, surrounding a performance, surrounding a premiere almost in a way keeps me grounded and allows me to know that I’m human and that everything is going to be OK despite the feelings I may be having.”
Some of the nervousness (and excitement) is amplified during the New York City Center run, mainly because it’s a hometown crowd for Bozeman. His family and friends come and check out a few performances, and they get to see the next step in his illustrious career.
That career has had many highlights. He is a former dancer of Philadanco and Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater. He was a gold-medal recipient from the NAACP ACT-SO Competition in Dance, and his inspiring story was the subject of a children’s book called The Power of Determination. His language skills are expansive as well. He knows American Sign Language, is conversational in Mandarin and is learning French. When he has a second to breathe, he’s also pursuing a degree in psychology; that’s when he’s not exercising his junior black belt in tae kwon do.
Performing with the Ailey company in New York City is a full-circle moment for the accomplished Bozeman.
“It’s interesting because there are a few of us who are from New York,” he said. “I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and the crazy thing is in junior high school I remember being in the dance studio and the posters that would be on the doors — it was two doors — the posters that they would have on the doors would be of Alvin Ailey, always an Alvin Ailey poster. I remember being in junior high school seeing these posters and dreaming that I would be here, and not thinking that it was actually possible, a boy from Brooklyn with minimal resources who hasn’t gotten to the huge ballet institutions and things of that nature. But to see Alvin Ailey and to see those posters and to see dancers who look like me, it gave me hope.”
He added: “Fast-forward to now I’m literally in shock. I can’t believe it — the little boy who was in the studio looking at these posters only dreaming about touching the stage and being a part of it, now here I am, 10 years plus in my career. And I’m dancing with one of the world-renowned dance companies, and I’m literally just honored. With the platform that I have, my goal is to just continue to inspire people and motivate people to do and achieve what it is they want, whether it be outside dance or outside the arts. The goal is just to inspire people to go forth with their dreams and try to achieve them because it’s possible with hard work, of course.”
The image of those Alvin Ailey posters in his younger days stayed with him, and how special it must have been for Bozeman during last year’s season when his image graced the 60th anniversary poster for the company.
“That is still a shock,” he said with a laugh. “To be from Brooklyn and New York, and seeing these posters and seeing myself pretty much all over the world because we’ve taken these posters during our domestic tour, international tour … has literally been a shock, almost unreal. I still can’t believe it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is currently performing at New York City Center. Jeroboam Bozeman will appear in many dances, including the world premiere of Jamar Roberts’ Ode, Tuesday, Dec. 10. Click here for more information and tickets.
