As a child, she was often told how much she resembled Alvin Ailey’s most famous dancer and now the company director, Judith Jamison. Smallwood admits she ““became obsessed. I was just fixated on her. I’d never seen a ballet dancer with dark skin and a black woman’s body. She had a short Afro that she couldn’t put in a bun. I kept thinking, “She did it and she looks like me’.''
After graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Brooklyn-born Smallwood, 25, joined Ailey Repertory, the secondary troupe. She ascended to the main company three years ago, but this season has been her year to shine. Smallwood now dances ““Cry,’’ the powerful ballet about the struggle of black women in America that Ailey choreographed for Jamison. She’s also become the face of the company: her image graces the cover of the 40th-anniversary program and ads. Last month she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine. It had been nine years since an African-American dancer had been chosen as a cover subject. The last dancer to be so honored? Judith Jamison.
