Robert Battle became Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in July 2011 after being personally selected by Judith Jamison, making him only the third person to head the Company since it was founded in 1958. Mr. Battle has a long-standing association with the Ailey organization. A frequent choreographer and artist-in-residence at Ailey since 1999, he has set many of his works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and The Ailey School. The Company’s current repertory includes his ballets Strange Humors, The Hunt, In/Side, and Takademe. In addition to expanding the Ailey repertory with works by artists as diverse as Paul Taylor, Rennie Harris, Jirí Kylián, Garth Fagan, and Kyle Abraham, Mr. Battle has also instituted the New Directors Choreography Lab to help develop the next generation of choreographers. His journey to the top of the modern dance world began in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Mr. Battle showed artistic talent early and studied dance at a high school arts magnet program before moving on to Miami’s New World School of the Arts, under the direction of Daniel Lewis and Gerri Houlihan, and finally to the dance program at The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, where he met his mentor, Carolyn Adams.
Mr. Battle danced with the Parsons Dance Company from 1994 to 2001 and also set his choreography on that company starting in 1998. He then founded his own Battleworks Dance Company, which made its premiere in 2002 in Düsseldorf, Germany as the U.S. representative to the World Dance Alliance’s Global Assembly. Battleworks subsequently performed extensively at venues including The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, American Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Mr. Battle was honored as one of the “Masters of African-American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005, and he received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in 2007. He is a sought-after keynote speaker and has addressed a number of high profile organizations including the United Nations Leaders Programme and the UNICEF Senior Leadership Development Programme.