Montblanc honors Judith Jamison

Having kick-ball-changed my way through life, it's with great admiration that I sat down with Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Judith Jamison in lieu of her latest accolade — Honoree of the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award.

Jamison joins a long list of celebrated patrons who have been honoured for their contribution "to encourage cultural life to flourish." Established in 1992, the Montblanc De La Culture Arts Patronage Program awards one person from various countries including China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, U.S.A., Spain, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom. It's a great program that celebrates the Art's unsung heroes. And despite the long of accolades already garnered throughout her illustrious career, Jamison is only too proud to accept this award on behalf of all of her Ailey family.

2010 marks Jamison's 20th anniversary as Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, an amazing achievement in a creatively cut throat world. Her dedication, creative commitment and no-nonsense approach to dance as a form of art, education and life is in keeping with the Ailey spirit, a man who was determined to make dance accessible ("not easy," points out Jamison) to everyone; who sought to teach, inspire and educate across racial, geographic and socio-economic confines.

"You should feel changed from seeing an Alvin Ailey production," says Jamison, ever the Matriarch of dance. "Even those who don't know about the world of dance — ice hockey players, footballers — are moved when they see an Ailey performance. It's an intimate experience created to move, to inspire, to change..."

Her constant commitment to commissioning new works, to maintaining a "past, present, future" approach has helped make Alvin Ailey remain one of the most formidable contemporary dance companies in the world. As you walk into the purpose built, entirely company owned structure — the largest dance space in New York — the next generation of dancers pirouette their way to greatness.

"Dancers are fearless and courageous," says Jamison. "They are survivors who constantly strive for excellence. No where else in the world can you be more giving, more loving, more vulnerable than you can on stage."

At 67, Jamison shows no sign of slowing down. "We have people in the company who are eighteen dancing next to a forty year old. Dance is ageless." And indeed, thanks to those like Jamison, destined to live on in all its fabulous forms.