When The Ailey School—the official school of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater—made its first-ever appearance at the Holland Dance Festival in The Hague on Nov. 14 and 15, the 13-member troupe included 12 Fordham University students.
Eleven of the students—Jacqueline Burnett, Taeler Cyrus, Fana Fraser, Daniel Harder, Demetia Hopkins, Ethan Kirschbaum, Jennifer Locke, Levi Marsman, Amy McClendon, Jordan McHenry and Lilli-Ann Tai—are enrolled in the four-year Ailey/Fordham Bachelor of Fine Arts program.
They performed with Ailey fellowship students Lindsey Holmes, a Fordham junior studying literature, and Christopher Bordenave in a joint program with the Rotterdam Dance Academy. The program featured Eroica, choreographed by Francesca Harper, and First Exposure by Darrell Moltrie. The Festival, which ran from Oct. 30 through Nov. 18, offered workshops and dance performances from many of the world’s best dance companies and schools.
The Ailey/Fordham BFA program, inaugurated in 1997, is a fully accredited four-year degree program in which students take a broad curriculum of dance techniques while enrolled full time in non-dance academic courses at Fordham. At the completion of the program, The Ailey School and Fordham present their students in a fully produced performance in The Ailey Citigroup Theater.
