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AAADT performs "Love Stories."
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GP: How did you find out you got into the first company?
DAS: It was the longest, most grueling audition I've ever been in. We walked up to the desk; we're the last three. Judith Jamison is sitting there, along with Sylvia Waters, Denise Jefferson [the Ailey School's director], and Chaya [AAADT associate artistic director]. She says, "Well, ladies, you've done wonderfully, but we only have room for two people." And then she goes, "Dwana and Deanna, welcome to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater." I just started crying. The third girl got in the next year.
GP: Was it frightening in the beginning in the first company, or did being in the second company prepare you for it?
DAS: I think I was prepared to a certain extent, and my only fear was making sure that Judith Jamison was pleased. She picked you. She wants to get her money's worth, and I wanted to make sure she was pleased. I wanted to do no wrong, so I put a lot of stress on myself: Oh, god, you can't mess up. I sort of have this overwhelming respect for my elders, so it just put this extra weight on me. ... But I was having fun. Believe me, I was having so much fun because now here I am with the dancers who I was always looking in [on] through the studio window. I was one of those dancers, so I was really excited.
GP: What is the company's work schedule?
DAS: We rehearse in the summer about 10 to 12 weeks, when we're home at the building, and then we go on an international tour maybe to Thanksgiving. We come back and rehearse a little more and then we [perform at] City Center. We're off for three weeks in January and then we go on a U.S. tour that usually lasts to the end of May. It's like seven weeks out, go home for a week. Five weeks out, go home for two weeks. We just came off of a week off, but some of us didn't really have a [full] week off. We had a photo shoot, we had rehearsal one day, and then we had to perform at the Apollo [Theater], so we had three days off. But who wants to be off?
GP: Do you have single rooms when you tour?
DAS: I have a single room. The top senior members have single rooms, but when I'm in cities where I know people, they're like, "Don't stay in a hotel, stay with me!"
GP: Does the company tour by plane or bus?
DAS: Mostly by plane.
GP: How about Ailey II?
DAS: Buses -- 13-hour bus rides, 10-hour bus rides. Get off the bus. Perform. But you know what's fun about that? It's the same bus. You had a cubby. You had 14 feet to yourself. It's sort of like a tour bus.
GP: When you do get vacation time, do you just relax or keep going with other stuff?
DAS: I like to go home and sleep. I go home and I sleep for like a million days in a row. My family never understands that. They're like, "It's three o'clock! What are you doing?" "I'm, like, sleeping." ... I like to work on my house in Brooklyn. Saved up and saved up and saved up some more, and bought a house four years ago. I like to crochet and knit and watch old movies. That's it.
GP: Did anything stand out to you about Russia during the tour, any special memories you have?
DAS: They took us on this boat in St. Petersburg. It was so beautiful, so amazing. They just treated us so nice, board members and sponsors. The thing I was not so happy about was it just seemed so depressing. I pay attention a lot of times, when I go to other countries, to how women are treated. Maybe later on I'll be an advocate for women's rights. I always notice that women are doing things not necessarily because they want to but because of survival, and prostitution there was huge. No one wants to talk about that. I just paid attention to how they were dressed, how they looked. Their spirits didn't look healthy at all. It was a little depressing.
GP: Did you all have a chance to talk to the fans there at all?
DAS: A little, after the performances. They always seemed extremely excited. When we would go out on our own, walking around and shopping, that's when you would see it was all about survival.
Interview by Jennifer Dunning for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in May 2006. (Photos: Nick Ruechel [banner] and Andrew Eccles [middle left], courtesy Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Paul Kolnik-Thirteen/WNET [top left].)
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