Alvin Ailey Dance Theater legend Judith Jamison honored with celebration of life
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Former Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performer and director Judith Jamison was honored with a celebration of life on Wednesday full of music, dance and love.
Jamison died in November at the age of 81.
"Judith Jamison once said dance is bigger than the physical body think bigger than that. When you extend your arm it doesn't stop at the end of your fingertips because you're dancing bigger than that. You're dancing spirit," said Ailey Board Chair Daria Wallach.
Jamison was 6 feet tall and her "big" stretched around the world.
She was uncommonly tall for a dancer, but was also an outsized success.
She was a dancer, choreographer, actress, an Emmy winner and recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors - who first performed on Broadway in 1979.
She was remembered as a force of nature.
"Taking dance to the people, in theaters gymnasiums, from basketball courts, to opera houses around the U.S., Europe and the world," said Ailey II Artistic Director Emerita Sylvia Waters.
"When our first season was over with them in New York, Judy tells me, 'you're family now.' Judy was a part of my initiation and to the world a new level of artistic excellence," said actress and author Anna Deavere Smith.
Jamison also was celebrated for her friendship and creative thoughtfulness.
"There was Judy, sitting on my stoop on 11th Street a welcome committee of one, when I and my newborn son came home from the hospital, with a bottle of champagne no less," Waters said.
There was a lot of laughter Wednesday - just like in one of her last interviews at age 80 last year with Eyewitness News reporter Kemberly Richardson.
A dancer to the end, Jamison said "through dance we're as close to God as we're going to get - until he calls us home."
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