Salon 53 bronze sponsor for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance St. Louis Ballet Ball

Freida Wheaton gets around. She’s a board member of Dance St. Louis and a member of the Ballet Ball Committee. Freida’s fun and saavy. She assembled a group of friends and supporters to join her at table #33. Freida, Salon 53 and friends provided Bronze Sponsorship to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Reception and dinner at the Spiering Room at the Sheldon Concert Hall launched a memorable evening. We walked over to the Fabulous Fox where we entered a VIP stage door and slipped into our good seats. The performance began with a retrospective film of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (founded by Alvin Ailey and then turned over to Judith Jamison as artistic director and Masazumi Chaya as associate artistic director).

Then, ah! the performance of: Firebird (1970), The Golden Section (1983), and Revelations (1960). Revelations [watch video here] is considered to be Ailey’s signature piece, and consists of these three movements: Pilgrim of Sorrow, Take Me to the Water, and Move, Members, Move.

Michael Uthoff, artistic and executive director of Dance St. Louis (housed at the Centene Center for Arts & Education) hosted the evening.

The champagne dessert reception with dancing to the Ralph Butler Band capped the evening. For me, the highlight was sharing the parquet floor with a four-year-old nymph who pirouetted as I taught her how to go in and out of “the basket” in the jitterbug move. What fun!