Robert Battle (Resident Choreographer) began his journey to the top of the modern dance world in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida, where he showed artistic talent early and studied dance at a high school arts magnet program. From there he attended Miami’s New World School of the Arts and then the dance program at The Juilliard School, where he met his mentor, Carolyn Adams. He performed with Parsons Dance from 1994 to 2001, and set his choreography on that company starting in 1998. Robert founded Battleworks Dance Company in 2002, which performed extensively at venues and festivals including The Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow. A frequent choreographer and artist in residence at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since 1999, he set many of his works on the Ailey company and Ailey II. In July 2011 he was personally selected by Judith Jamison to become Artistic Director of Ailey, making him only the third person to head the company since it was founded in 1958. During his 12 years in the role, he expanded the Ailey repertory with works by artists as diverse as Kyle Abraham, Mauro Bigonzetti, Ronald K. Brown, Rennie Harris, and Paul Taylor. He also instituted the New Directions Choreography Lab to help develop the next generation of choreographers. He stepped down from the position in 2023.
Robert was honored as one of the “Masters of African American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005, and he received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in 2007. He is a recipient of the 2021 Dance Magazine Award and has honorary doctorates from the University of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, and Fordham University. Robert was named a 2015 Visiting Fellow for The Art of Change, an initiative by the Ford Foundation. In spring 2025 he was invited to be a Resident Choreographer for the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
Photo credit: Marie Cowan