As artist in context at Duke Divinity School, Alvin Ailey Associate Artistic Director, Matthew Rushing has developed a new community-focused iteration of his 2024 ballet, Sacred Songs. Entitled Sacred Places: Decoding the Spiritual, this version of the ballet will debut at Durham Arts Council on April 11, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. There are no admission fees, but a ticket must be reserved in advance.

In Sacred Songs, alongside a musical collaborator, Du'Bois A'Keen, Rushing brought to life the suite of negro spirituals that were removed from Ailey's 1976 masterwork Revelations to shorten the ballet for tour. Sacred Places carries on the work of setting these spirituals to new musical genres and choreography, and Rushing crafted the ballet through research on the negro spirituals, liturgy, and the social practices of art with Divinity and University faculty. The ballet troupe features both Divinity and Trinity students as well as members of the Durham community. Intentionally crafted for dialogue, engagement, and community building, the performance of the ballet will be followed by a live discussion with Rushing and Divinity faculty as well as Q&A with the audience.

This project is supported in part by Duke Arts, the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke University. The artist in context residency and project were made possible through a grant program through the Creative Arts Collective for Christian Life and Faith.