Artist Up-Close Conversation with Master Choreographer Dwight Rhoden, former Alvin Ailey principal dancer, and the legendary Desmond Richardson, first African American principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater. Moderated by Julie Strandberg, co-founder of The American Dance Legacy Initiative, Artist-In-Residence and Founding Director of Dance at Brown University.

This conversation with Complexions’ founders will explore the relationship between contemporary ballet and its predecessors, classical ballet and modern dance, and how the integration of contemporary social values informs the way each respectively expresses ideas and touches audiences. Rhoden and Richardson will also speak specifically to their work with Complexions using contemporary ballet as a medium and the ways the form leverages their intentions; and to the importance of the dancing body as both a symbolic and tangible purveyor of meaning in a world moving towards equal representation.