All Ages Ailey Dance Party

Floor 3, Theater

Open for all ages

1 pm West African Dance with Maguette Camara
2 pm Afro’ Fusion with Judith McCarty

Celebrate the closing of Edges of Ailey with an intergenerational dance party. Do your stretches and get ready to groove with the incredible dancers of AILEY Extension. Improvise your own moves or join sessions led by AILEY Extension faculty. Maguette Camara and Judith McCarty. 

Step into one of our mini photo studios and draw inspiration from the photography of James Van Der Zee, on view in Edges of Ailey. Get creative with props, furniture, and lighting to craft the perfect image. Take turns stepping behind the lens and in front of the camera, exploring the roles of both director and model. 

James Van Der Zee was an influential photographer who documented Harlem’s vibrant cultural and social life during the 1920s and 1930s, capturing the aspirations, elegance, and spirit of its residents through meticulously composed portraits and dynamic images. Van Der Zee’s career focus, like Alvin Ailey’s, was to highlight and showcase the pride and everyday lives of Black Americans.

Maguette Camara is a globally recognized West African dancer, choreographer, teacher, and drummer based in New York City.

He began his career with the Ballet Bougarabou Dance Company in Dakar, Senegal, performing and leading workshops in Morocco, Canada, South Korea, Guadeloupe, and the U.S. Camara has graced venues such as the Guggenheim Museum, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center, and has performed with the Rolling Stones, Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal, and in Broadway’s Angelique. His work has been praised by The New York Times, Dance Teacher Magazine, and NBC.

Since 1997, Camara has been a faculty member at The Ailey School and Barnard College. He also teaches open classes at Ailey Extension and Djoniba Dance Centre. Known for his energy and positivity, his classes have a devoted following locally and internationally, now reaching participants worldwide through remote learning.

Judith McCarty is a French, Congolese, Cape Town-raised choreographer and artistic director. Her classes are high energy, full of technique, drilling, and hot choreography. 

McCarty has toured the world dancing and choreographing for the biggest Afrobeats, hip-hop, and pop artists including Lauryn Hill, the Fugees, WizKid, Davido, Flavour, Tiwa Savage, A-boogie, Burna Boy, and more. She has performed on some of the world's biggest stages including Idols South Africa, Metro FM Awards, One Africa Music Fest, Essence Magazine’s Black Women in Music, BET Music Awards, and many more. McCarty's work has been displayed on stages such as the Barclays Center, the Apollo, and Hot 97's Summer Jam. Her artistry has created show-stopping pieces that have made her a go-to choreographer. While balancing her career, she has also opened a dance company, Afro-Afriqué, that includes over a dozen dancers as well as a Junior team. Her dedication to sharing her knowledge about dance in African culture has led her to teach at various studios around the world.