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Earth, wind & fire: Hope Boykin, Alicia Graf, and Dwana Smallwood bring their star power to the Ailey tradition.

Article Excerpt
"Alvin used to call the dancers gods and goddesses--when we did something right," says Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Alley American Dance Theater. During her performing career, Jamison certainly exuded a goddess-like aura. It isn't a stretch, then, to see that the dancers she has hired and coached look like they're doing something more than right. You can count on them to turn the stage into their own Valhalla. Three of those goddesses grace the stage with their own individual styles: Hope Boykin, Alicia J. Graf, and Dwana Adiaha Smallwood. Representing Ailey's anti-cookie cutter ethos, they look, think, and dance differently. But they all share the Ailey vision that Jamison says demands "technique, commitment, courage, power, and lust for life."

When she dances, Hope Boykin feels every step. She can act as a one-person artillery unit onstage, hurling her body like a cannonball. But in Jamison's new Reminiscin', she exudes a softer, more emotional side. First cast in the central duet with Clifton Brown, her deeply visceral performance moved some audience members to tears.

Boykin's mother swears that her 4-year-old daughter exited the theater ferociously fanning herself after seeing her first Alley performance in Durham, North Carolina. Morn saw it as a sign. (She was right.) Today, Boykin is never happier than when she's the pivotal girl smack dab at the head of the wedge of dancers in the...

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