City Ballet The Podcast

In this second half of a special 2-part Hear the Dance episode celebrating the life and work of late choreographer Ulysses Dove, host Silas Farley interviews Ulysses’ brother Alfred, Director and Administrator of Ulysses’ estate. Beginning with his childhood in South Carolina and Georgia, Dove traces his brother’s transition from a talented pre-med student at Howard University to a dancer with the Merce Cunningham Company, to his first works as a choreographer commissioned by Alvin Ailey. Dove shares his recollections not only of Ulysses as a sibling, but as a creator, and discusses how continuing to engage with his brother’s works as they are performed by Companies today is like returning to an old friend—one that “gives the dancers the opportunity to live completely out loud… if they take the risk.” (46:49)

Music:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky
Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (1977) by Arvo Pärt
Episodes (1987) by Robert Ruggieri