NORWICH – Ailey II, the company universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s emerging choreographers, will perform at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31 in Norwich at the Martin W. Kappel Theater at the Chenango County Council of the Arts. Considered among the most talented of their generation, these young dancers always captivate audiences with their technique, grace and beauty. Due to growing popularity, this year’s tour to over 45 cities will take the company throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Virgin Islands.

“The future of American dance is safe in the hands of today’s young dancers,” said The New York Times after Ailey II’s participation in the 1.2.3 Festival at New York’s Joyce Theater this past May.

Under the artistic direction of Sylvia Waters’s since 1974, Ailey II’s repertory includes a diverse array of ballets by today’s up-and-coming choreographers, dance veterans and Alvin Ailey’s timeless classics, including his masterpiece Revelations. This season will see the addition of world premieres by Jessica Lang, Abdel Salaam and Darrell Grand Moultrie, who previously treated Ailey II audiences to his jazzy Aspects of a Vibe in 2001. The company also welcomes seven new dancers this season, all of whom have trained extensively at the prestigious Ailey School in New York.

Ailey II embodies Mr. Ailey’s pioneering mission to establish an extended cultural community that provides dance performances, training, and community programs for all people using the beauty and humanity of the African-American heritage and other cultures to unite people of all races, ages, and backgrounds. In addition to performances, company members will lead master classes and lecture demonstrations at public schools, high schools, colleges and cultural centers while on tour.

Tour highlights to be performed in Norwich include:

Axis

Visionary choreographer Abdel Salaam, known for melding African and American Indian dance forms with mainstream culture, creates works that are technically and mentally complex. His new ballet for Ailey II will challenge the sharp technique and intriguing minds of the Ailey II dancers. The New York Times called Salaam a “bit of an ecologist and anthropologist,” saying he has an “unmistakable and sure voice of his own.”

Mourner’s Bench

Choreographed by the renowned Talley Beatty, this emotional solo portrays spiritual struggle through muscular interplay between a male dancer and a bench. The work was inspired by Howard Fast’s novel Southern Landscape, and refers to the tragic influence of the Ku Klux Klan on a mixed-race community in the rural South after the Civil War. The soloist asserts himself within and against the themes of oppression and transcendence in the highly stylized, gestural vocabulary of the piece. The dancer “sitting on the mourner’s bench,” reflects upon the end of his community and the horror of its slaughter. Mourner’s Bench is set to the traditional spiritual There Is A Balm in Gilead. Mourner’s Bench is a “modern-dance classic.” (The New York Times).