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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is stopping in Eugene during its 20-city tour of the United States this year, its first under the leadership of its newest artistic director. An Ailey dancer spoke with Lookout about what audiences can expect from the new era.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is performing in Eugene this week, giving local audiences a close-up look at works old and new from an iconic dance company in the midst of a new era.
Dancer, choreographer and activist Alvin Ailey Jr. founded the dance theater in 1958, creating a haven for Black dancers and artists in New York City and originating works that peered into the heart of the Black experience in America, like in Ailey’s signature work, “Revelations.”
Now, close to seven decades later, the dance theater is in the middle of a 20-city tour of the United States under the stewardship of its new artistic director, Alicia Graf Mack, a former principal dancer for the company, who was mentored by its longtime artistic director, Judith Jamison.
The Eugene performances, on Tuesday, March 17, and Wednesday, March 18, will see dancers performing “Revelations” as well as newer works that still speak to the company’s singular vision.
Samantha Figgins, a dancer and choreographer with the company, spoke with Lookout Eugene-Springfield about what the new era looks like and the experience of being an ambassador for Ailey’s vision, decades after his death while also originating new works for the company.
“Alicia aims to take us into a place where we are challenging what an Ailey dancer looks like,” Figgins said. “We are pushing the boundaries of what Black dance looks like and who is allowed to do certain [repertory]. Mr. Ailey wanted his dancers to be able to do everything.”
Sharing Ailey’s vision in 2026 America
For Figgins, the best part about a domestic tour is the ability to share the company’s work in cities across the country. She called that ability a gift.
“We are really representing the human spirit, the human experience, the ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and being a mirror to that, to the audience,” she said. “I really hope as we go through this domestic tour that the audience is able to see themselves on stage, and they’re able to have a moment of reflection and transcendence through the night.”
The Hult Center performances will be anchored by “Revelations,” but the rest of the works on the program feature company repertoire old and new. Tuesday’s lineup includes the works “Blink of an Eye” and “Embrace,” which both premiered in 2025, as well as the 2004 Jamison-choreographed “A Case of You”; Wednesday’s includes the 1999 premiere “Grace,” along with the 2025 premiered works “Difference Between” and “Song of the Anchorite.”
Credit: Paul Kolnik / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Eugene stop does not have Figgins’ “Holy Blues” (which she co-choreographed with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Chalvar Monteiro) on the program, but she pointed to that work — with its blend of Afrofuturistic aesthetic, modern dance and invoking of the traditional ring-shout practice — as a sign of how the company’s repertory is growing to meet the moment.
Ailey’s work was centered on “blood memory,” a channeling of ancestral memories (for Ailey, formed by growing up as a Black Christian in Texas) into physical movement. Figgins said that blood memory still animates the company, both when dancing in a work like “Revelations” and when originating new works.
“Not only am I following in [Ailey’s] footsteps, but I’m able to put my own voice into the work and infuse my own ideas and thoughts and experience,” she said. “Maybe take things a little bit further and to try to create something that is not only timeless, not only to speak to our generation, but to all generations, to honor the past, the present and the future.”
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will perform in the Silva Concert Hall of the Hult Center, Tuesday, March 17, and Wednesday, March 18, with both shows starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $55 for Tuesday’s show and $35 for Wednesday’s show.
