Alvin Ailey Preserving the African-American Experience Through Dance
When it comes to the performing arts — certainly to dance in particular — there are few people more worthy of admiration, inspiration, and imitation than Alvin Ailey, legendary dancer and choreographer.
He was both uniquely gifted and qualified to tell the African-American experience through the art of dance, drawing from growing up in the black church as well as his own struggles with self-esteem due to the acts of racial violence so prevalent during his formative years in the South. His mother was only a teenager when he was born and his father left the family early on. He grew up poor in the small Texas town of Navasota. “Alvin Ailey himself lived through segregation, and the things he choreographed, his blood memories, are things that he saw.” (Robert Battle)
If you follow me or the podcast on social media, you know that I’m a white man who also grew up in the South. I was certainly witness to and heard tinges of racism growing up, but was fortunately sheltered for the most part from those who held such a deep-seeded hatred. A bigotry that Ailey knew first-hand.
Within the theater, we have playwrights and lyricists who can put difficult feelings and hard lessons into words. They show us parts of humanity that can be both glorious and despicable. But theater is not with us right now, the stage is silent. And so in the last few weeks, in light of the events that led to George Floyd‘s death and its aftermath, I have looked for and listened to past voices for both understanding and action, comfort and courage.
We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. We will not be satisfied.
— Martin Luther King
One of my most treasured experiences and memories of being here in New York City is getting to watch the Alvin Ailey American Dance concerts each winter and summer. They consist of powerful and moving performances by amazingly talented dancers. As I tried to put the recent events in perspective, to understand the why and how America got here (again and again), my thoughts went to the stories and emotions told through the pieces that Alvin Ailey choreographed himself, namely his iconic Revelations. In fact, all of his work came forth from the people and places and experiences of his life.
Though Ailey studied with many great and iconic teachers like Martha Graham and Stella Adler, it was his years with famed choreographer Lester Horton that provided the strongest inspiration for Ailey’s future work.
In the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, Lester Horton developed a modern dance technique influenced by Native American dances, anatomical studies, and other movement styles. He choreographed a number of works for stage and film and established the Lester Horton Dance Theater in 1946, one of the first permanent theaters dedicated to modern dance in the U.S.
He was also among the first choreographers in the U.S. to insist upon racial integration in his company. As far as Horton was concerned “his art was much more important than the color of a dancer’s skin,” according to Ailey who joined the dance company in 1949.
When Horton died unexpectedly in 1953, Ailey temporarily took over leadership of the dance company before moving to New York the following year. Between 1954–57, he appeared in three Broadway productions — Truman Capote’s short-lived musical House of Flowers, The Carefree Tree, and Jamaica, starring Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban. But it was in 1958 that he launched the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Though Horton’s technique became the foundation for many of Ailey’s masterpieces including Cry and Revelations, Horton‘s legacy also lived on in Ailey’s insistence on a racially diverse dance company.
Since Ailey’s death in 1989, his work has been continued by two artistic directors. The first was Judith Jamison, a long time member of his dance company who Ailey hand-picked as his successor, and then in 2011 she chose choreographer and artist-in-residence Robert Battle. You’ll hear from them throughout the tribute episode below, which highlights the story of Ailey’s artistic journey and the ways he used dance to change hearts and open minds.
In total there are three episodes focusing on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The others feature current and former dancers with the company: Samantha Figgins and Michael Francis McBride.
