I am disappointed to have missed this excellent review by Brian Seibert (The New York Times, 24 November 2025) of Maija García’s “Jazz Island,” based on a book by Trinidadian artist and actor Geoffrey Holder, Black Gods, Green Islands (2011) and further inspired by Holder’s wife Carmen de Lavallade. Seibert writes, “Maija García’s ‘Jazz Island’ is a full-company narrative of a kind that Ailey hasn’t done in a while. And it features an Afro-Caribbean score by Etienne Charles.”
Centering on Caribbean folktales and rhythms, with characters like the Vodoun goddess Erzulie— goddess of love, water, and beauty— García’s “Jazz Island” premiered at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during their winter 2025-2026 season at New York City Center. Hopefully, there will be other performances soon. I highly recommend this article on García’s work, her sources of inspiration and trajectory.
The goddess of love drifts in on waves and wind. When the choreographer Maija García was invited to make her first work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, this was the first image that came to mind.
Then, a colleague directed her to “Black Gods, Green Islands,” a collection of Afro-Caribbean folklore written by Geoffrey Holder, the Trinidad-born artist, actor and dancer. The final story, “Goddess,” opens with almost the same image as the one in García’s vision. Taking this as a sign, she chose “Goddess” to adapt into dance.
That work, “Jazz Island,” will have its debut on Dec. 5 as part of the Ailey company’s season at New York City Center (through Jan. 4). It is greatly enlivened by an original score by another Trinidad-born artist, the jazz trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles — the colleague who gave García the tip about the book.
In an interview, García described “Jazz Island” as “a reclamation of a cultural heritage that lives inside the Alvin Ailey legacy.” That’s partly because the work is something of a throwback in style, the kind of full-company narrative piece that the company hasn’t been doing much lately.
And while García’s credits as a dancer and choreographer are extensive, she had been focusing exclusively on directing and teaching theater when she got a call from Matthew Rushing at Ailey, then the interim artistic director, asking her to do a piece. [. . .]
Other aspects of the cultural heritage that García set out to reclaim are more personal. While growing up and studying ballet in Ann Arbor, Mich., as the daughter of a Cuban immigrant father and a mother of Dutch-Irish heritage, García often wondered where she belonged, she said. Seeing a photo of Alvin Ailey on the cover of Dance magazine made her think, “That’s what I want.” [. . .]
In search of her roots, García studied the technique of Katherine Dunham, the Black anthropologist and choreographer who, starting in the 1930s, incorporated Afro-Caribbean traditions into her works of dance theater. It was seeing a Dunham production in 1945 that first made Ailey realize that “Black people could be dignified on the stage,” he once said.
“Jazz Island” is in a Dunhamesque mode, but the work, García said, is above all a tribute to Holder (who died in 2014) and his wife, Carmen de Lavallade, the beloved actor, dancer and choreographer.
De Lavallade, 94, holds a hallowed place in Ailey history. It was she who first coaxed Ailey into a dance studio, back when they were both Los Angeles high school students in 1949. After performing together in Lester Horton Dance Theater, they both moved to New York in 1954 to appear in the Haitian-themed musical “House of Flowers.” It was in that show that de Lavallade met Holder.
After Ailey founded his company in 1958, de Lavallade played an occasional role. When the troupe toured Southeast Asia in 1961, it was billed under both their names, with hers first. Works by Holder became an important part of the repertory, especially “Prodigal Prince,” a colorful pageant graced by the gods of Haitian Vodou.
Holder and de Lavallade also have a personal connection for García. “Carmen was my idol,” she said. In 2009, when García was associate choreographer (under Bill T. Jones) for the Broadway musical “Fela!,” Holder and de Lavallade saw the show and praised García, telling her, “We see you.” [. . .]
But then came the dream opportunity with Ailey. Her first move was to reach out to Charles for music. “We’re both interested in the Afro-Caribbean aesthetic inside of American music and dance,” she said.
The next step was to develop her own narrative blueprint. In Holder’s story, Erzulie, the goddess of love, goes looking for some amusement in the world of men. In Haiti, she comes upon a young woman, Bashiba, whose grandmother wants her to marry a rich man she does not love. Erzulie decides to intervene, but this meddling causes Baron Samedi, the top-hat-wearing divine master of death and giver of life, to intervene too.
“What I love about this story is that it’s told from the perspective of the gods,” García said. “In some ways, they’re weary of us, of our greed and confusion, but also curious. Erzulie is saying: ‘Remember. Life could be so beautiful. Come back to the source.’” [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/arts/dance/ailey-maija-garcia-etienne-charles-jazz-island.html
Also see https://www.amazon.com/Black-Green-Islands-Geoffrey-Holder/dp/1258014343
[Above (Photo by Paul Kolnik): Ailey dancer Caroline T. Dartey in ‘Jazz Island’. From https://www.facebook.com/AileyOrganization.]
I am disappointed to have missed this excellent review by Brian Seibert (The New York Times, 24 November 2025) of Maija García’s “Jazz Island,” based on a book by Trinidadian artist and actor Geoffrey Holder, Black Gods, Green Islands (2011) and further inspired by Holder’s wife Carmen de Lavallade. Seibert writes, “Maija García’s ‘Jazz Island’
