CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will continue to host online-only performances. As of Oct. 25, 2021, this article has been updated to reflect the fact that The Ailey School will continue to host online-only performances.

The Ailey School will continue to host online-only performances for all its dancers for the second year due to pandemic concerns. However, there has been some loosening of policies since the end of the 2020-21 academic year. Students no longer need to socially distance during rehearsals and can make contact during dances.

Performances will be held virtually and filmed by videographers, allowing anyone to watch remotely.

Marley Poku-Kankam, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23 and junior class representative for the Fordham/Ailey B.F.A. program, has been heavily involved with helping student affairs at Ailey and meeting with the faculty to discuss matters related to the students. 

“The guidelines around New York — and what we can and can’t do — are changing every so often, so they couldn’t really tell us much and they didn’t want to promise something and take it away in the end,” Poku-Kankam said. “They sort of kept to themselves over the summer, just so it wasn’t implied by anything.” 

“Having a film performance means more people are able to see it.” Hannah Howell, FCLC ’23

Students miss in-person performances, but they are also excited for the opportunities virtual performances bring. Hannah Howell, FCLC ’23 and a student in the Fordham/Ailey B.F.A. program, said that she enjoyed the shareable aspect of filmed performances. 

“Filming dance gives a lot of opportunity to view things differently, being able to record you can get different angles and splice things together — things you can’t do when you’re on a stage,” Howell said. “Also, having a film performance means more people are able to see it … you have a link you can send to anyone, anywhere.”

Many other students said that they were also happy with how filmed productions could expand their reach. Jacob Blank, FCLC ’22 and a student in the Fordham/Ailey B.F.A. program, said he found virtual performances beneficial because of the ability to “reach a wider audience” and be “more accessible, worldwide, for people that wouldn’t be able to travel to the city to see the show.”

Melanie Person, co-director of the Ailey School and director of the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. program, said she empathizes with students’ desires to get back on stage in front of a live audience and complimented them on their adherence to COVID-19 guidelines.

“(The students) are terrific. They follow the rules, they adhere to the guidelines, they really, really do. They follow all of the protocols.” Person said. She added that she loves seeing students live on stage and will be “the first one in the back cheering” as soon as in-person performances restart. 

Ailey has been flexible with its policymaking during the pandemic, allowing them to continue to hold rehearsals in-person while Fordham classes remained fully online for the 2020-21 academic year. 

“This decision was made, after school started, because we were going a little back and forth, whether we could do (rehearsals) in person, or should we do them online again.” Melanie Person, director of the Fordham/Ailey program

Person emphasized the school is able to continue holding in-person classes and rehearsals due to its consistency with safety policies. Precautions include taking the temperature of anyone who enters the facility, filling out a health check form at sanitizing stations and requiring everyone to wear a mask.

“This decision was made, after school started, because we were going a little back and forth, whether we could do (rehearsals) in person, or should we do them online again,” she said. “Based on the conversations that I was having with our safety and medical taskforce, they recommended that we do exactly what we did last year.”

After Poku-Kankam heard nothing, Ailey sent an email in early August saying that the program would be online. 

Most students echoed a similar bittersweet feeling regarding missing in-person performances. The dancers miss the “whole environment and hype of a show,” as Carley Greene, FCLC ’23, said.