From The Other Side

Spring 2021

About the piece

In the Spring of 2021 Yale Dance Lab commissioned Renée Robinson, former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Yale faculty member, to create an original dance film with a select ensemble of Yale student dancers. Within one’s story we find rich connections to ourselves and each other. Our stories move us and others when we share. How do we articulate our stories when using the body to express the experience? How can the moving body speak from within? “In the creation of this original dance film, the process will be rich with opportunities to explore, understand, and fine-tune some of the ways in which the human body can speak with clarity and expression. Having an instrument that can articulate with ease a feeling, or emotion, or story can be fun and uplifting, and it can also be very healing.” - Renée Robinson to the dancers at the beginning of the project.

Dancers

Ke’ala Akau, Itai Almor, Grace Blaxill, Anna Borou Yu, Sophia DeVito, Lia Eggleston, Hannah Gellman, Danielle Harris, Haven Herrin, Matthew Jordan, Angele Kelly, Sarah Marshland, Gabrielle Niederhoffer, Ashlin Ondrusek, Chayton Pabich, Minji Park, Mariel Pettee, Jeffrey Steele, and Lulu Zhang

About the Artist

 Renee Robinson began her dance training in classical ballet at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. She also attended the School of American Ballet, the Dance Theatre of Harlem and The Ailey School.  Robinson was a member of the Alvin Ailey II before becoming a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1981.

Before joining AAADT, Robinson was a student at New York University, majoring in dance and minoring in economics. She was torn between becoming a professional dancer or an attorney specializing in the arts.

She has worked with many renowned choreographers, such as Alvin Ailey(link is external), Lar Lubovitch(link is external), Donald McKayle(link is external), Judith Jamison(link is external), Ulysses Dove(link is external), Jerome Robbins(link is external), Bill T. Jones(link is external), Garth Fagan(link is external), Katherine Dunham(link is external), Hans van Manen(link is external) and Carmen de Lavallade(link is external).

Robinson has also performed at the televised Kennedy Center Awards. Other televised appearances include performing at President Clinton’s first inauguration, American Express advertisements, the Bill Cosby Special on Alvin Ailey and on the PBS special “A Hymn for Alvin Ailey”.  In 2003, she performed at the White House State Dinner in honor of the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki(link is external). In 2008, she performed in the East Room(link is external) of the White House during the first dance event hosted by Michelle Obama(link is external).