Alvin Ailey Biography Overview - Research Paper Example

Introduction Alvin Ailey was born on 5th January 19321 in Rogers, Texas as the only child of Alvin Ailey Sr. andLula Elizabeth Ailey. He grew up in the period of the Great Depression (1929-1939) when America went through a time of extreme poverty. Racial segregation was also prevalent during that period and he grew up feeling as if he was an outsider, one who did not matter. Unable to support his family due to lack of a job, Alvin’s father deserted them when Alvin was only 6 months old (Gitenstein, 8). With the determination of making a better life for herself and her child, Alvin’s mother moved severally in Alvin’s early years. Alvin constantly attended the True Vine Baptist Church where his mother was a choir member and where he gained the experience of enthusiastic and charismatic worship filled with traditional spiritual songs and gospel music. He would later choreograph dances to a number of of the music he learnt there (Newworldencyclopedia.org, 2). In the year 1942, his mother moved to Los Angeles with him. At school, Alvin’s classmate in high-school introduced him to Lester Hortons Hollywood studio in the year 1949 and shy from his itinerant life in Texas, he reluctantly turned to dance. He took dance lessons, and the company exposed him to its vividly dramatic work both for popular forums such as movie musicals and nightclubs, outdoor pageants; as well as the concert stage. His study in dance made him develop a great smoldering performance style that perfectly suited his athletic body. Alvin became a good tap dancer, but he did not give it serious thought. As a teenager, he was forced to work after school in order to assist his mother meet living expenses (Dunning, 7 & Danelle, 3). Having graduated from high school in the year 1948, Alvin went to the University of California with the intention of becoming a teacher but his interest in dance soon came back, particularly after he came across the Lester Horton Dance Theatre giving a dance. Horton’s highly theatrical modern dance style and his apparent interest in Native American dances and culture greatly attracted Alvin and he thought of changing his course from teaching to dance. He won a scholarship and enrolled for technique and dance composition classes with Lester Horton. He also got employment with Horton’s stage crew and danced with them. In the year 1951, seeking a more stable career, Alvin enrolled for a major in romance languages in San Francisco State College. While there, he got to dance with a touring company and soon realized that what he really wanted was dance regardless of how risky it was compared to the dependable and stable teaching career. He rejoined the Los Angeles’ Lester Horton Dance Theatre and Lester Horton died suddenly in the year 1953, leaving the company without a director. They asked Alvin to choreograph some dances. He taught at Horton Dance School but later got an opportunity of dancing in a concert in New York and moved to the East Coast (Danelle, 5&6). In the year in 1954, Alvin went to New York to dance in the Broadway production of ‘House of Flowers’ with a partner called Carmen DeLavallade and in the year 1958, he founded The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), his own dance theater, having been greatly inspired by his prominent modern ballet dance teachers namely Charles Weidman, Karel Shook, Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. The theater started with seven dancers as a repertory company. They devoted themselves to modern dance classics as well as new works that Alvin together with other young artists created (DeFrantz, 1). Alvin’s first concerts in the years 1958 and 1960 were very successful and they marked the start of a new period of dance performance concentrating on African-American theme – his company, deemed a principally black company helped the first black dance stars to be established. Alvin strongly believed in the power of dance. To him, dance should be valid for everyone and should be availed to everyone. In the face of criticism regarding the theatricality of his company, he always stood his ground, sometimes exacerbated. In his professional training, everything was grain for his dance’s mill. He specifically aimed at founding a dance company that would give African American choreographers and dancers an opportunity to display their work. His dances communicate to all his audiences (black and white, young and old) what being black in America feels like. In his dances, Alvin’s main themes express deep feelings or what he refers to as ‘blood memories’. He also based his dances on political events and he strongly opposed the South African segregation and apartheid. Alvin used his choreography to pour his soul and his heart. A deep emotion that directly communicates with the audience’s souls in a simple language is apparent in his dances (Dunning, 6 & Gitenstein, 4&6). His 1958 ‘Blues Suite’ depicts the joys and desperation of life on poverty’s edge in the South. The dance is highly theatrical and forthwith accessible and it has sections of ballet partnering, Horton dance technique, social dances of the early 20th-century and Jack Cole-inspired jazz dance. His early performances of ‘Revelations’ (1960), depicting a black religious worship spectrum, made his company the principal African-American experience dance interpreter. Rapidly, the dance became the signature ballet of the company and it surpassed earlier concert endeavors at dancing to pious black music. In the year 1963, he integrated his all-black dance company racially after he encountered reverse racism (DeFrantz, 1). A number of Alvin’s dances laid the foundation for American dance. His 1962 Feast of Ashes is credited as the first auspicious modern dancer-choreographed ‘pointe’ ballet. In the year 1966, Alvin presented dances for the inaugural production of the New York Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ by Samuel Barber. He also created ‘The River’, which plausibly blended ballet technique and theatrical jazz dancing, in 1970 for American Ballet Theatre. In the year 1971, he created the staging for rock-influenced ‘Mass’, a musical theatre work by Leonard Bernstein, which opened the new Kennedy Center in Washington (DeFrantz, 2). Major distinctions and honors followed Alvin all through his career as a choreographer, whereby he created over 50 dances for the Royal Danish Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater, the London Festival Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet as well as his own company. Alvin won several awards including a UN Peace Medal; an NAACP Spingarn Medal; and honorary fine arts doctorates from Cedar Crest College, Bard College, Princeton University and Adelphi University. In the year 1988, at the Kennedy Center Honors, the US president celebrated him for a lifelong of achievement in the arts (Tyler, 74-75). From the time when it was created, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed for approximately more than 15 million people in 48 states of the United States of America, 45 countries and on 6 continents. The company has taken over 25 international tours, with the the1970 tour of Russia being the most successful – since Isadore Duncan’s days; it was the first American modern dance company to visit the USSR (Riartslearning.net, 5). Alvin died on December 1, 1989 of a rare blood disease that was later discovered to be AIDS at the age of 58. This was a sad loss to the nation as well as to the dance world (Newworldencyclopedia.org, 29). As DeFrantz explains, Alvin’s company outlived him and currently, it has really grown from a tiny pick-up company comprising of seven dancers to a great carefully controlled internationally renowned enterprise comprising of numerous ensembles of dancers. It even has a key active dance teaching institution/school with over 3,000 students over and above being a junior, touring company. Conclusion No modern-dance black choreographers of Alvin’s generation have equaled his popular success. He gained the reputation of the founder of modern dance. Alvin was the most globally famous choreographer and dancer of his time, possessing spectacular dancing skills, which made him receive numerous job calls. At a period when modern dance and Ballet was to a great extent white performers and choreographers’ province with well-trained black dancers being completely shut out of white dance fields, he pressed on, following up every lead, appearing at numerous auditions and answering to any open call for supporting dancers in Broadway musicals. Alvin became a great spokesman for the significant role of black performers in the American arts as well as for the universality of the African experience in the US. By ensuring that dance was made accessible to everybody, the Ailey Extension symbolizes his legacy that dance emanates from the people and should be given back to them.  Works Cited Danelle. Artist Hero: Alvin Ailey. 2010. Web. DeFrantz, Thomas F. Free to Dance: Alvin Ailey. N.d. Web. Dunning, Jennifer. Dance View; Alvin Ailey: Believer in the Power of Dance. 1989. Web. Gitenstein, Judy. Alvin Ailey: The Library of American Choreographers. New York: Rosen Classroom, 2006. Print. Newworldencyclopedia.org. New World Encyclopedia: Ailey, Alvin. 2008. Web. Riartslearning.net. Alvin Ailey. 2006. Web. Tyler, Ron. The New Handbook of Texas, Vol. 1. Austin, Texas: Texas State Historical Association, 1996. Print. Read More