Renee Robinson is a retired American dancer from Washington, D.C., who performed as a Principal Dancer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.Transcript.
/ref> She began her dance training in classical ballet at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. She also attended the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...

, the

Dance Theatre of Harlem Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) is an American professional ballet company and school based in Harlem, New York City. It was founded in 1969 under the directorship of Arthur Mitchell and later partnered with Karel Shook. Milton Rosenstock served a ...

and The Ailey School. Robinson was a member of the Alvin Ailey II, before becoming a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1981. Before joining AAADT, Robinson was a student at New York University, majoring in dance and minoring in economics. She was torn between becoming a professional dancer or an attorney specializing in the arts. She has worked with many renowned choreographers, such as Alvin Ailey,

Lar Lubovitch Lar Lubovitch (born April 9, 1943) is an American choreographer. He founded his own dance company, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Based in New York City, the company has performed in all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 cou ...

Donald McKayle Donald McKayle (July 6, 1930 – April 6, 2018) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and writer best known for creating socially conscious concert works during the 1950s and '60s that focus on expressing the human con ...

Judith Jamison Judith Ann Jamison (pronounced JAM-ih-son) (born May 10, 1943) is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Early training Judith Jamison was born in 1943 to Tessie Brown Ja ...

Ulysses Dove Ulysses Dove (January 17, 1947 in Columbia, South Carolina – June 11, 1996 in Manhattan) was a choreographer. Dove began his dance training at Boggs Academy in Georgia. Dove gave up his premedical studies at Howard University to transfer to ...

, Jerome Robbins,

Bill T. Jones William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones, (born February 15, 1952) is an American choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Jones is Artistic Director of New York Live Ar ...

Garth Fagan Gawain Garth Fagan, CD (born 3 May 1940) is a Jamaican modern dance choreographer. He is the founder and artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance, a modern dance company based in Rochester, New York. Biography Early years Fagan was born in K ...

, Katherine Dunham, Hans van Manen and Carmen de Lavallade. Robinson has also performed at the televised Kennedy Center Awards. Other televised appearances include performing at President Clinton's first inauguration,

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

advertisements, the Bill Cosby Special on Alvin Ailey and on the PBS special "A Hymn for Alvin Ailey". In 2003, she performed at the White House State Dinner in honor of the President of Kenya,

Mwai Kibaki Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers. He had previously ser ...

. In 2008, while performing in the

East Room The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence, which is a building of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for ...

of the White House during the first dance event hosted by

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

, Robinson hit one of the chandeliers while performing. In their 2006 season, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrated Robinson's 25th year with the company; her tenure is the longest of any female dancer in the company's history. Upon her retirement (with her final performance with the company on December 9, 2012), she was the last company member to have worked with its founder, Alvin Ailey, as well as being the only dancer to have performed with all three of the company's artistic directors (inclusive of artistic director emerita Judith Jamison and Jamison's successor,

Robert Battle Robert Battle (born August 28, 1972 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA) is a dancer, choreographer and the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Early life and education Originally from the Liberty City community of Miami, Fl ...

Select performance pieces

(Choreographer, Title) *Alvin Ailey, ''Blues Suite'' *Alvin Ailey, ''

Revelations Revelation, in religion and theology, is the act of revealing through communication with supernatural entities. Revelation(s) may also refer to: * Book of Revelation or simply Revelation, the last book of the New Testament * Revelation (Latter Da ...

'' *Alvin Ailey, ''Maskela Langage'' *Alvin Ailey, ''Cry'' *Donald McKayle, ''Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder'' *Alvin Ailey, ''Night Creature'' *George Fasion, ''Suite Otis'' *Ulysses Dove, ''Bad Blood'' *Ulysses Dove, ''Vespers'' *Ulysses Dove, ''Episodes'' *Judith Jamison, ''Forgotten Time'' *Billy Wilson, ''The Winter of Lisbon'' *Judith Jamison, ''Hymn'' *Ronald K. Brown, ''Grace'' *Carmen de Lavallade, ''Sweet Bitter Love''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Renee American dancers American female dancers Dance Theatre of Harlem dancers Living people New York University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)