MY WEEKEND: Robert Battle
“When I first came here, the city was wonderful and scary at the same time,” says Robert Battle, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The Florida native was 17 and had never been on a plane before Juilliard gave him a full scholarship to study dance, a passion that began five years earlier, when he saw the Ailey troupe perform in Miami. The company just opened its 60th-anniversary season, with a month full of shows at City Center. Battle, now 46 and living on the Upper West Side, tells BARBARA HOFFMAN where you’ll find him on the weekend.
In the morning, I go to Dunkin’ Donuts and get my coffee. I started drinking it when I quit smoking about eight years ago. I need that morning ritual: something hot, with a little steam.
My routine used to be to walk to Riverside Park. There’s a wonderful area right by the water with this big rock you can sit on. One day, a neighbor saw me there and asked if I’d been to Lotus Garden. It sounded like a Chinese restaurant, but he took me into this gated area on top of a parking garage on 97th Street. It’s this beautiful community garden with lots of plants, places to sit and a little koi pond. You have to give a little donation to get a key. I’ll sit up there with my coffee and listen to Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone on my phone.
I think better when I’m moving, especially when I’m choreographing, so I walk uptown and back. I’ve gone to Sylvia’s Restaurant [in Harlem] for years. Everybody knows me as a rib man, and I like the ones there, with tangy barbecue sauce. I also love the Red Rooster, next door. The owner, Marcus Samuelsson, is a fan of the Ailey company, and I’ve been a fan of his since he was on the Food Network.
Before I came to New York, I’d heard about the Blue Note. So many great jazz performers have played it, you think it’s going to be a big space, but it’s actually very intimate. I got to see the late Abbey Lincoln there and also Kathleen Battle, who from the stage [joked], “Wait? Is that my cousin, Robert Battle?” All my life, people asked me if we’re related. We’re not.
My first major performance as a dancer was at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea, and I love going back there — it feels like family. There’s a wonderful restaurant near there, Buddakan, that’s sort of Asian fusion. You go up a really steep staircase into this beautiful space with a long table, and the food is fabulous — king crab legs in a spicy sauce, and lightly fried monk
fish. I don’t shop much. I go to Hugo Boss, if I want one suit, and Macy’s, if I want two. There’s something about going to Macy’s during the holidays. I remember watching the parade on TV as a kid. It reminds me of the awe of being in New York City, where there’s history everywhere.