Robert Battle

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Choreographer, ballet company director

title: "Robert Battle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1972-births", "living-people", "people-from-jacksonville,-florida", "artistic-directors-(music)", "american-choreographers", "juilliard-school-alumni"] description: "Choreographer, ballet company director" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Battle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Choreographer, ballet company director ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Robert Battle
image	P20230210AS-2211 (52734013627) (Robert Battle crop).jpg
caption	Battle in February 2023
birth_date
birth_place	Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
education	Juilliard School (1994)
occupation	dancer, choreographer, artistic director
years_active	1994–2023
::

Robert Battle (born August 28, 1972) is a dancer, choreographer, and the former Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Early life and education

Robert Battle was born on August 28, 1972 in Jacksonville, Florida. Originally from the Liberty City community of Miami, Florida, Battle was raised by his great uncle Willie Horne and his cousin Dessie Horne in economically poor living conditions. | last = Kourlas | first = Gia | title = For New Ailey Leader, It's All in the Family | newspaper = New York Times | date = May 7, 2010 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/arts/dance/09battle.html | access-date = January 12, 2012 | last = Acocella | first = Joan | title = New Move | newspaper = The New Yorker | date = December 19, 2011 | url = http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/dancing/2011/12/19/111219crda_dancing_acocella | access-date = April 12, 2012 He studied at the New World School of the Arts before graduating from the Juilliard School, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1994. | title = Alumni News | publisher = Juilliard School | date = March 2010 | url = http://www.juilliard.edu/alumni/news/news_decades/2009-2010/1003/index.php | access-date = April 12, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111111122007/http://juilliard.edu/alumni/news/news_decades/2009-2010/1003/index.php | archive-date = 2011-11-11 | quote = Robert Battle (BFA ’94) At Juilliard, former Paul Taylor dancer Carolyn Adams became his mentor.

Career

Upon graduation from Juilliard, he joined the Parsons Dance Company. In 1998, he began choreographing for the group. He founded his own Battleworks Dance Company in 2001. The Battleworks Dace Company debuted at the Global Assembly of the World Dance Alliance as the American Representative, and went on to perform at the American Dance Festival and Jacob's Pillow Dance. He began working with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1999, when he was commissioned to create a dance for the Ailey II troupe.

Battle was named one of the Masters of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005.

In 2015 Battle was named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow.

Alvin Ailey

He began the directorship on July 1, 2011, and is its third director since the company's 1958 inception. When receiving the position Battle says, "I hope to be worthy of this tremendous responsibility that I've been given, and to honor it in the only way Alvin Ailey would have accepted: by keeping it now, alive and moving forward". | title = Robert Battle To Take Over Alvin Ailey Dance Company | publisher = Huffington Post | date = April 29, 2010 | url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/robert-battle-to-take-ove_n_557058.html | access-date = January 12, 2012 Although Battle was never formally part of the Ailey company prior to his appointment, making him the first artistic director with no direct connection to the company or to Ailey himself, he contributed a number of works to the company's repertoire, and had long been recognized as the anointed successor to Judith Jamison. As Jamison was in an interview she says, "that Battle's choreography has the ability to draw audiences into his work, and it reminds her of Alvin". | last = Wakin | first = Daniel J. | title = Ailey Company Names New Director | newspaper = New York Times | date = April 28, 2010 | url = http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/ailey-company-names-new-director/ | access-date = January 12, 2012 He served several terms as artist-in-residence with Ailey. | title = Robert Battle talks of next steps for Ailey dance troupe | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | date = May 3, 2010 | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-may-03-la-et-ailey-director-20100503-story.html | access-date = January 12, 2012

In 2015, Battle created his first work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Awakening. The same year saw the Alvin Ailey company premiere of his No Longer Silent. Of the piece, composed eight years prior for Juilliard, the New York Times wrote, “It’s arguably Mr. Battle’s strongest piece, and the most major one that he’s set on the Ailey troupe so far. Battle echoes the rhythmic complexity of the music in his ritualistic choreography that is reminiscent of the early works of Martha Graham and, in many moments, the theatricality of Paul Taylor, yet this dance retains its taut point of view to the end.”Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, 'No Longer Silent', 2015 https://ailey.org/repertory/no-longer-silent

In November 2023, Battle announced his retirement as Artistic Director, for health reasons.

Post-Ailey work

In November 2024, Battle accepted a position as a resident choreographer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, with duties commencing in 2025.

Works

1999- Takademe
2000- Promenade
2001- The Hunt
2003- Juba
2004- Feast
2004- Mass
2004- Strange Humors
2006- Final Sounds
2007- Bon Appétit!
2007- No Longer Silent, using the musical ballet, *Ogelala*Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, 'No Longer Silent', 2015 https://ailey.org/repertory/no-longer-silent
2007- Unfold
2008- Ella
2008- In/Side
2010- Three
2015- Awakening
2021- For Four

References

Bauer, Pat. "Robert Battle". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 24 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Battle . Accessed 25 May 2023.
Kourlas, Gia. (2015-11-25). "Robert Battle Finally Has His Steps in the Spotlight". The New York Times.
Kourlas, Gia. (November 28, 2023). "Robert Battle Had a Wide Vision of What Alvin Ailey Could Be". The New York Times.
(9 November 2024). "DANCE NEWS: New In! Robert Battle is Now Resident Choreographer of the Paul Taylor Dance Company".
(7 November 2024). "Robert Battle Appointed Resident Choreographer Of Paul Taylor Dance Company".
Michael Jacobs, 'Atlanta Jewish Times,' January 27, 2016 "Dance Gives Life to Voice Hitler Silenced" https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/dance-gives-life-to-voice-hitler-silenced/

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