Take four amazing Ailey dancers and add in Wynton Marsalis’ delicious jazz score – written in 4/4 time – and you’ll understand why Robert Battle cheekily titled this exuberant short work For Four. Originally created as the opening video segment for the 2021 Ailey Spring Gala virtual broadcast, Battle used the pent-up energy of a world that had largely been cooped up for the prior 15 months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Dance really is about being close together,” said Mr. Battle. “When we were in the studio making this dance, you could feel the electricity of what we did together, the way we felt so free to express ourselves in the way that we do, and so For Four is a manifestation of that expression."

In its review of the Gala, The New York Times observed: "With all its spinning and attitudinizing… [For Four] can seem like simple release. But there’s also a darker, more desperate undertone, a hint of having to perform…. Something more than pent-up energy is being expressed."

PRESS COVERAGE

The Washington Post review, 1/29/22: "As director of the Ailey company, Robert Battle pushed his own creativity aside. The pandemic brought it back."
"His new creation…is called 'For Four.' With a quartet of dancers bounding to feverish jazz by Wynton Marsalis, it’s a seven-minute affirmation that Battle the artist is back in business…fast-paced and jittery, the dancers spinning and jumping without stop. That boiling energy comes from the thrill of being back in the studio, Battle says. Riding that joy, he pushed self-consciousness aside and focused on the dancers."

Leadership support for the world premiere of For Four is provided by Pamela D. Zilly & John H. Schaefer.

The world premiere of For Four is made possible with major support from Melinda & Paul Pressler, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn & Nicolas S. Rohatyn, The Ellen Jewett & Richard L. Kauffman New Works Endowment Fund, Elaine & Lawrence J. Rothenberg, Denise Littlefield Sobel, and the Red Moose Charitable Fund.

For Four is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.