Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 2019 Holiday Opening Night Gala Benefit Performance And Party Honors Philanthropist Elaine Wynn & The Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation

One-Night-Only Program Will Include Two Merce Cunningham Centennial Solos and Special Performance to Memorialize Opera Great Jessye Norman

Celebration Launches Ailey’s Holiday Season at New York City Center, December 4 – January 5

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will launch a five-week holiday season on December 4 with a star-studded gala benefit performance at New York City Center and party at the New York Hilton Midtown Grand Ballroom. The special evening celebrates philanthropist Elaine Wynn and the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation. Wynn’s generous contributions have supported the creation of new works as well as the Elaine Wynn & Family Education Wing, which in 2017 added three floors – featuring four dance studios and two classrooms – to The Joan Weill Center for Dance, New York’s largest building dedicated to dance.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater logo

The one-night only performance at 7pm will feature two Merce Cunningham Centennial Solos that were part of this year’s 100th anniversary celebration of his birth – marking the first time this landmark choreographer’s work will be seen on the Ailey stage – as well as a special excerpt of Artistic Director Robert Battle’s Channels to honor and memorialize opera great Jessye Norman, set to her recorded performance of a Johannes Brahms lied – a 19th -century German art song. Following the inspiring finale of Revelations, performed with live music, prominent figures in the worlds of entertainment, business, philanthropy and politics will join Robert Battle and Ailey’s extraordinary dancers for a dinner/dance in the Hilton New York Grand Ballroom.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theaters Solomon Dumas.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will launch a five-week holiday season on December 4 with a star-studded gala benefit performance at New York City Center. Photo by Andrew Eccles

The event’s co-chairs are Emily & Len Blavatnik, Paulette Mullings Bradnock & Howard Bradnock, Melody Hobson & George Lucas, Daria L. & Eric J. Wallach and Joan & Sandy Weill. Proceeds from the annual benefit will support the creation of new works, scholarships to The Ailey School, and Ailey’s educational programs for children.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey’s Revelations Performed with Live Music. Photo by Christopher Duggan.

Ailey’s holiday season features special programs such as an evening celebrating The Ailey School’s 50th Anniversary (December 10); a tribute performance for Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya, which will highlight his extensive career of nearly five decades as he concludes his final season with the Company (December 22); and world premieres Greenwood (December 6), a powerful work by Donald Byrd that draws on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and Ode (December 10), offering a meditation on the beauty and fragility of life in a time of growing gun violence by Ailey dancer and Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Jacqueline Green. Photo by Andrew Eccles

Kohl’s Reveals Five Days of Cyber Week Savings and Rewards Customers with Kohl’s Cash

• Back by popular demand, five consecutive days of Cyber savings both in-store and on Kohls.com beginning Saturday, Nov. 30, including must-have doorbusters and new online deals each day
• Sitewide savings of 20% off on Kohls.com purchases with promo code TWENTY4U and 20% off in-store purchases from Saturday, Nov. 30 through Wednesday, Dec. 4 (exclusions apply)
• One-day Super Cyber Monday event returns on Monday, Dec. 2 with deep discounts and the opportunity to earn $15 for $50 Kohl’s Cash, a Kohl’s customer favorite
• New this year, more days to earn Kohl’s Cash, including a one-day only $5, $10 or $15 Kohl’s Cash earn with every in-store purchase Saturday, Nov. 30 to kick off Cyber Week

Kohl’stoday announced it will bring back five consecutive days of Cyber Week savings offering customers 20% off in-store and Kohls.com purchases (exclusions apply), incredible doorbusters and new online deals each day beginning Saturday, Nov. 30 through Wednesday, Dec. 4. In addition, Kohl’s Super Cyber Monday Sale is back with deep discounts on the hottest gifts of the season and $15 for $50 Kohl’s Cash both in-store and online — a value customers can only get at Kohl’s. To top it all off, new this year, customers will discover more days to earn Kohl’s Cash, including the opportunity to earn $5, $10 or $15 Kohl’s Cash with every in-store purchase* for one day only, this Saturday, Nov. 30.

Five Exciting Days of Savings Only at Kohl’s

• 20% Off Purchases: On top of great deals and new gifts at every turn, customers will receive 20% off their purchase when they shop in store or online at Kohls.com (with promo code TWENTY4U) from Saturday, Nov. 30 through Wednesday, Dec. 4. Details and Exclusions apply.
• 2-Day Cyber Doorbusters: Kohl’s is kicking off Cyber Week with two days of Cyber doorbusters both in store and on Kohls.com beginning Saturday, Nov. 30 through Sunday, Dec. 1. New doorbusters return on Tuesday, Dec. 3 through Wednesday, Dec. 4 to give customers even more incredible deals to close out the week. A sneak peek of doorbusters available for Saturday, Nov. 30 and Sunday, Dec. 1 include:

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• $55.99 with 20% off coupon** + $20 mail-in rebate Sonicare Dual Handle gift set or Norelco Shaver 3700 gift set
• $20-$60 off all Fitbit fitness trackers and smartwatches. Offers and coupons do not apply.

• Super Cyber Monday Deals: For one day only, customers shopping in store and on Kohls.com will discover unbeatable savings on must-have gifts. And for those customers shopping online, Kohl’s will sweeten the deal by offering $10 off every $50 purchase sitewide. Details and Exclusions apply. A few of the great deals available on Cyber Monday include:

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch To Speak at National Press Club Dec. 9

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the newly appointed 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, will speak at the National Press Club as part of its Headliners speaker series Monday, Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. Bunch will be in conversation with Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, president of the National Press Club, to discuss his vision for the Smithsonian and his new book, A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump.

Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian. (Michael Barnes/Smithsonian Institution Archives)

Bunch, who assumed the position of Secretary in June, oversees the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers and the National Zoo. He was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and previously held positions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and National Air and Space Museum.

Bunch will sign copies of A Fool’s Errand, which chronicles his experience creating a national museum that was a decade in the making. Preordered books will be available for pickup at the event. Attendees will also be able to purchase books at the door.

The event will be held in the club’s Fourth Estate Restaurant at 529 14th St. N.W., Washington, D.C., and will include a light breakfast. Tickets cost $5 for members of the National Press Club, $10 for the general public and are available for purchase on the club’s website. Doors open at 9:30 a.m.

National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Alvin Ailey Photography Collection Is Now Available to the Public

More Than 10,000 Photographs Announced on Anniversary of Ailey’s Death and World AIDS Day

Ahead of World AIDS Day and the 30th anniversary of Alvin Ailey’s death (Dec. 1), the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is making available the collection of more than 10,000 photographs chronicling the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1961 to 1994. The Jack Mitchell Photography of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Collection includes 8,288 black-and-white negatives, 2,106 color slides and transparencies, and 339 black-and-white prints depicting private photo sessions, repertory by Alvin Ailey and a wide range of choreographers and iconic solo performers.

Alvin Ailey with the Company in 1978. Photo by Jack Mitchell. (©) Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution

Jack Mitchell’s collection documents the dance company’s evolution while capturing the true idiosyncrasies and physicality of movement through still images. The photography showcases the innovative performances and groundbreaking artistry of Ailey, who shined a spotlight on the contributions and experiences of the African American heritage that inspired the racially diverse performances he presented that forever changed American dance and culture.

Marilyn Banks, Alvin Ailey, and Masazumi Chaya. Photo by Jack Mitchell. (©) Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution

Acquired in 2013, the entire digitized photography collection has been recently made available to the public online via the Smithsonian’s Online Virtual Archives. The collection is jointly owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation.

Masazumi Chaya. Photo by Jack Mitchell. (©) Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution

“To have one photographer as talented as Jack Mitchell capture the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s history allows us to really witness the groundbreaking and historic nature of Alvin Ailey’s dance style and his vision for a dance company,” said Spencer Crew, interim director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “It’s particularly difficult to capture the essence of performing arts in photography, yet this collection showcases the ephemeral nature of the performances that made the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater so special to so many audiences around the world.”

Photo Credit: Portrait of Alvin Ailey with Judith Jamison, Linda Kent and Dudley Williams in dance studio. Photography by Jack Mitchell © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation Inc. and Smithsonian Institution, All rights reserved.

Mitchell’s photography vividly illustrates the evolution of Ailey’s principal dancers, notable performances and Ailey himself. The collection contains photographs of over 80 choreographed performances by Ailey, including his debut piece “Blues Suite” along with “The River” and “Revelations,” one of Ailey’s most popular and critically acclaimed pieces that tells the African American story from slavery to freedom and remains one the most beloved works of modern dance, acclaimed as a must-see and applauded by audiences around the world. The collection also features portraits of Judith Jamison, who was Ailey’s muse, most notably for the tour-de-force solo “Cry,” and who he entrusted to become artistic director before his death. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s other earliest and most revered dancers are featured, including Dudley Williams, Sylvia Waters, Masazumi Chaya and Donna Wood.