The New Dance in the Block
On Tuesday March 14th 2017, Cal Performances invited Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to perform in Zellerbach Hall at the UC Berkeley campus. After two midterms on the same day, I arrived at the presentation location completely exhausted and extremely tired, and decided that I would try my best not to fall asleep within the first minutes of the spectacle.
Yet, as the performance started, I had no problems staying awake since I was fascinated by the different styles of music that led the one single continuous dance that permeated through the stage. The most striking fact of that dance that flowed from one music style to another was its difference from the traditional dances I had previously seen in concerts before. Being accustomed to ballet presentations as I used to watch my sister’s performances every year, I did not expect to watch similar dance moves associated to something that was not classical music, and this change made me reflect in the expression of counter-cultures through dance.
The countercultural aspect of this performance is a reflection of its founder Alvin Ailey, a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom[1]. The African-American was not only the choreographer who founded a dance company in New York, but also an activist who expressed himself through his dances that revolutionized the participation of the black community in 20th century performances[2]. Growing up during the 1940s time of racial segregation, he grew a sense of black pride that was evident in the performance almost 80 years later through the music and choreographer’s stances. Through the dance the audience is exposed to the anger and pain expressions of the African-Americans back in Ailey’s youth faced with disadvantages and racism in a day to day basis. His masterpiece Revelations debuted in 1960 and has been the signature work of his American Dance Theater ever since[3].
Revelations is different from the traditional ballet concerts I have previously watched as it explores three different music genres; blues, spirituals and gospel, with a single dance performance that flows from one music to the other without any intervals. On the other hand, ballet and other traditional classical dances back in 1960s had bailarinas, who were almost always White, that would produce subtle moves in accordance to the beat of the classical music background. The change from the traditional one music per piece back in the days was an innovation at the time together with the fact that most dancers were African-Americans[4]. This change can be seen as a form of counter-culture as it went against the status-quo at the time and demonstrated the suffering of the black community through arts and innovation. While the audience, composed mainly of White people who were financially better off at the time, was used to watching beautiful spectacles at the tone of classical music, this presentation showed them another perspective of the suffering that was lived only by a minority at the time.
This mix of different music types that distinguished Ailey’s dance from traditional dances at the time contributed to the rise of the new genre “African American Modern Dance”. Together with Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus, Alvin Ailey was the pioneer in using aspects from the uprising modern dance and fusing it with Caribbean and African dances that were neglected and underrepresented in American Theaters at the time[5]. Hence, what initially started as a countercultural movement in the form of dance at the 51st Street YWCA’s Clark Center for the Performing Arts grew into the widely renowned music phenomena that inspired a whole new genre on its wake. On this particular block in 51st Street, the feeling of oppression was transmitted through arts to the white people who gathered to watch it, and managed to turn their attention towards this new music style for years to come.
One particular scene caught my attention as a symbol of the oppressed turning the tables and “oppressing” those that are considered to have the most power. Close to the middle of the presentation when the performance was changing songs, the women choreographers stood on top of their male counterparts and walked off of them. Back in the 1960s when the gender inequality gap was even larger, such a scene posed another challenge to the status quo and was shocking for the audience. The way I interpreted it was as if Ailey wanted to show to the mainly white audience a form of oppression they could all relate to in their households. I believe this brilliant analogy symbolizes the difficulties faced by the African-Americans and calls for a change in the way society views what is considered “common”.
By the end, showing up for the Concert ended up being a very positive experience for someone who was expecting to sleep in the process. At least in my case, Alvin Ailey accomplished his objectives with and made me aware of the struggles his folks passed during the racial segregation era as well as made me reflect on the issues they still face nowadays. In the end, Ailey’s new dance from the 51st Street block of Manhattan NY, or simply “new dance in the block”, turned out to be way more entertaining than the traditional ballet concerts I had previously attended. After all, it is not a coincidence that the concert has been running for more than half a century…
[1] News, CBS. “Obama to Honor Icon of American Dance.” CBS News. CBS Interactive, 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2017. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dancer-alvin-ailey-to-posthumously-receive-presidential-medal-of-freedom/>.
[2] Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with Cal Performances. Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. 14 Mar. 2017. Performance.
[3] “Explore Our History.” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2017. <https://www.alvinailey.org/about/history>.
[4] “History of Dance.” History World. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2017. <http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab82>.
[5] “History of Black Dance: 20th-Century Black American Dance.” Victoria and Albert Museum, Digital Media. N.p., 17 July 2013. Web. 04 May 2017. <http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-black-dance-20th-century-black-american-dance/>.
