Complexions Contemporary Ballet is a contemporary ballet company founded in 1994 by Alvin Ailey alums Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson based in New York City comprising about 14 classical and contemporary dancers. Complexions performs worldwide and provides dance education.
Complexions has received numerous awards including the New York Times “Critics Choice” Award. The company has appeared throughout the US, including the Joyce Theater/NY, Lincoln Center/NY, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s/NY, the Mahalia Jackson Performance Arts Center in New Orleans, the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, the Music Center in Los Angeles, and the Winspear Opera House/Dallas.
Dwight Rhoden has created over 90 ballets for Complexions, as well as numerous other companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Arizona Ballet, the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company, the Dance Theater of Harlem, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, the Joffrey Ballet and New York City Ballet.
Desmond Richardson uses a wide range of dance forms including classical, modern, and contemporary, having previously been with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (alongside Rhoden), Ballet Frankfurt, and the first African American principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Desmond has been a guest artist with several world-renowned companies including the Swedish Opera Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Teatro at La Scala, the San Francisco Ballet.
The company’s foremost innovation is that dance should be about removing boundaries, not reinforcing them. Whether it be the limiting traditions of a single style, period, venue, or culture, Complexions transcends them all, creating an open, continually evolving form of dance that reflects the movement of our world—and all its constituent cultures—as an interrelated whole.
Together, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson have created in Complexions an institution that embodies its historical moment, a sanctuary where those passionate about dance can celebrate its past while simultaneously building its future. In the 20 years since its inception, the company has born witness to a world that is becoming more fluid, more changeable, and more culturally interconnected than ever before—in other words, a world that is becoming more and more like Complexions itself.