Ballet Theatre brings in Ailey II to open season

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Oct 11, 2009

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She’s only 19, so no one’s going to listen to her.

Of course, she hasn’t really tried getting someone to listen to her because, well, she’s only 19.

Who knows? Someone might take seriously Ghrai DeVore’s choreography ideas. That is, if she’s ready to reveal them.

“Oh no, not now,” she said. “I’m just too young. Who would listen to me?”

Besides, there’s just something better about being on stage right now, dancing someone else’s choreography.

And plenty of people will see her perform these dances when the Ailey II dance company takes the River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts’ stage Friday, Oct. 16, in A Season of Tutus and Two II’s.

The performance kicks off Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre’s 2009-2010 season, which marks the ballet theatre’s 49th season.

Ailey II began in 1974 as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, when founder Ailey initiated a workshop made up of the students from The Ailey School in New York. Ailey handpicked original members of the company, which embodied his pioneering vision to establish an extended cultural community that provides dance performances, training and community programs for all people.

Which is partly what attracted DeVore to the company.

“I saw different dance companies, and I tried a couple of dance companies in Chicago, but theirs wasn’t my type of dance,” she said. “I tried out for Ailey II, and I like the togetherness and how well we work together.”

DeVore mentioned Chicago. It’s where she went to middle school and graduated from high school. It’s also where her mother, also a dancer, lives.

She trained in Chicago, but she can’t credit the city as the place where she was introduced to dance. DeVore’s career actually began in early childhood in Washington, D.C.

“It’s where we lived before moving to Chicago,” DeVore said. “And I’ve always been around dance because of my mom. And she’s so excited to see where my career is taking me.”