Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey was a prominent American dancer and choreographer known for his significant contributions to modern dance. Born in rural Texas in 1931, Ailey experienced a challenging childhood marked by racial discrimination and family instability. His artistic journey began in Los Angeles, where he found inspiration in the vibrant cultural landscape and pursued dance under the mentorship of Lester Horton. Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958, which showcased original works that celebrated African American culture and experiences.
His most famous piece, "Revelations," premiered in 1960 and is a powerful expression of the African American spiritual journey, drawing from gospel hymns and spirituals. Ailey's choreographic style is characterized by its expressiveness and incorporation of diverse cultural elements, leading to groundbreaking changes in the dance world and the mainstream acceptance of African American artistry. Despite personal struggles, including mental health challenges, Ailey left a lasting legacy as a champion of multiculturalism in dance. The Ailey company continues to perform worldwide, and initiatives like Ailey Camp aim to inspire young dancers from diverse backgrounds. Ailey passed away in 1989, but his influence endures in contemporary dance.
Subject Terms
Alvin Ailey
Choreographer
- Born: January 5, 1931
- Birthplace: Rogers, Texas
- Died: December 1, 1989
- Place of death: New York, New York
American dancer and choreographer
Ailey was the first African American to create a multicultural concert dance company. His Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater became internationally renowned for its creative fusion of traditional ballet and modern dance. Ailey not only addressed the racism and injustice faced by blacks in the United States and around the world but also choreographed for performances of white composers.
Areas of achievement Dance, education
Early Life
Alvin Ailey (AY-lee) was born in rural Texas to Lula Elizabeth Cliff and Alvin Ailey, Sr. Alvin was a large baby, intensely curious and alert, who “got busy,” according to his mother, “as soon as he was born.” Abandoned by her husband shortly after Alvin’s birth, his mother earned her living picking cotton and cleaning houses for white people.
In his autobiography Ailey recalled the vicious racism of his Texas childhood, but remembered, too, the warm support of the relatives with whom he and his mother lived. Young Ailey absorbed the music and rituals of the African American church but was also exposed to the rough, honky-tonk life of a local saloon and the blues played by traveling musicians. These contrasting experiences would influence his best work.
Ailey attributes his lifelong sense of inferiority that made him undervalue his work to the absence of his father. His mother was often a harsh disciplinarian; nevertheless, their loving relationship sustained him throughout his life. When Ailey was six years old, his mother began living with Amos Alexander, whom Ailey remembered with kindness.
When Ailey was twelve, he and his mother moved to Los Angeles. In a crucial decision, he abandoned his friends who were heading toward a life of crime and chose instead to pursue his artistic interests. At multicultural Jefferson High School, Ailey developed his talent for languages and became a voracious reader. A failure at most sports, he nonetheless excelled at gymnastics, especially floor exercises.
Ailey’s teachers took their students to theater and musical performances, inspiring Ailey to haunt the matinees and vaudeville houses in the Los Angeles theater district. He was electrified by a performance of Katherine Dunham’s black dance troupe and imagined new possibilities for himself. Encouraged by high school classmates Carmen and Yvonne de Lavallade, Ailey began dance classes with Lester Horton, a white teacher who welcomed black students. After high school, Ailey moved to San Francisco to take college courses, planning to be a teacher. However, at the age of twenty-two, lured by the dance world, he returned to the Horton school to begin his career as a dancer.
Life’s Work
When Horton died of a heart attack in 1953, Ailey began creating original dances for the company. Horton believed that a dance company was a family that collaborated to create their performances, a philosophy Ailey later continued with his own dancers.
Ailey began the practice of keeping notebooks with his choreography directions, poetry, and creative ideas, a practice that would continue for the rest of his life. In 1954 the Horton company performed Ailey’s first works, According to St. Francis and Mourning Morning.
After a brief return to California, Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade went to New York City, performing as lead dancers in the Broadway musical House of Flowers (written by Truman Capote). Ailey followed this with a role in the musical Jamaica. Although Ailey’s technical skills were never highly developed, he was strikingly handsome and commanded the stage with his athletic ability and sensuality. After a brief stage career, he decided to make dance his career.
In 1958, Ailey and his dancers began what Ailey called “the station wagon tours,” driving cross-country in a station wagon packed with stage scenery. One stop was the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. The performance, however, met with a disappointing review. Also in 1958, Ailey choreographed Blues Suite, which was performed by a pick-up company of dancers at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) at 92nd Street in New York City, a venue for the performing arts. This dance, rooted in his memories of the rough life at the Texas saloon of his childhood, marked the beginning of what would become the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
In 1960, Revelations, which was based on the gospel hymns and spirituals from his early church experience, opened at the YMHA. Revelations was a highly emotional and spiritual history of black people in America, from the times of slavery to the performance’s finale in contemporary times, depicting a rousing portrayal of a church revival meeting, “Rocka My Soul.” Both Blues Suite and Revelations are considered masterpieces of dance theater, and they have been revised and are still performed by the company.
Although funding his young dance company was always a problem, Ailey’s work was recognized as breaking new ground in modern dance. He admired the work of George Balanchine, who dominated the field of classical ballet, but disliked the style of Balanchine’s dancers, who displayed blank expressions and danced with precise movements. In contrast, Ailey envisioned dance as a performance art, one that was often improvised and expressive of strong personalities. His male dancers were noted for their sensuality and athletic ability. Lighting, costumes, and theatricality distinguished Ailey’s work from that of other concert dance companies.
Some criticized Ailey for creating not “serious art” but “entertainment.” He also faced the contemporary racism that limited African Americans to the role of a “Negro” dance style. Ailey believed passionately that African American music, art, and dance belonged in the mainstream of American culture. His company was multicultural and included African Americans, Asians, whites, and Latinos.
The company, supported by U.S. government grants and the National Endowment for the Arts, gained an international reputation; it performed in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Ailey loved surprise and often unnerved his dancers by assigning them different roles just before performance time. Despite his frequent temperamental tirades, his dancers remained fiercely loyal to him, and they believed deeply in the mission of the company.
In 1965, Ailey withdrew from the stage to become artistic director of the company. Joining the company that year was Judith Jamison, the statuesque, ballet-trained dancer who would perform lead roles for fifteen years. For Jamison, Ailey created Cry, “dedicated to all black women everywhere especially our mothers.” The 1970’s and early 1980’s were prolific years for Ailey. His dances included Masekela Language (1969), Cry (1971), Night Creature (1975; with the music of Duke Ellington), Memoria (1979; in memory of dancer Joyce Trisler), and For Bird with Love (1984; a tribute to Charlie Parker). However, Ailey, feeling intense pressure as someone who was black, gay, and an artist, was increasingly troubled by personal insecurities. Outwardly charming, he was lonely and had difficulty trusting even those closest to him.
During these years Ailey spent money wildly, abused cocaine and alcohol, and had sexual encounters with men from the street. In 1979 he suffered an emotional breakdown, leading to a public scandal. He was diagnosed as having manic depression (now called bipolar disorder) and spent several months in a mental hospital. Stabilized by the drug lithium, he returned to his creative intensity, although with occasional lapses into his former excesses.
Recognized for his groundbreaking work in modern dance, Ailey received numerous awards, among them the United Nations Peace Medal, the Scripps American Dance Festival Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime contribution to American culture through the performing arts.
Ailey died in 1989 from AIDS-related complications. He was buried at Rose Hills Park in Whittier, California.
Significance
In his brief career, Ailey created seventy-nine original dances that changed the face of modern dance in America and earned him an international reputation. His work continues to be performed by the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and other dance companies. Under his innovative leadership, African American culture came into the mainstream of American arts. Largely through his efforts, American dance has become multicultural with the racial stereotyping of the past diminished, if not eliminated.
With Jamison as artistic director of the company, Ailey’s legacy continued. The company regularly performs throughout the world. The company’s smaller repertory ensemble, Ailey II, trains young dancers and performs in schools, hospitals, and prisons. Ailey Camp and the Ailey Dance School provide outreach programs for urban youth in several cities. In 2004 the company established a permanent home at 55th Street and 9th Avenue in Manhattan.
Further Reading
Ailey, Alvin, with A. Peter Bailey. Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey. New York: Carol, 1995. A fragmentary autobiography, with the collaboration of A. Peter Bailey, who completed the text after Ailey’s death. A frank revelation of Ailey’s insecurities, emotional issues, and drug use.
DeFrantz, Thomas. Dancing Revelations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. An academic treatment of race, gender, and sexuality implicit in Ailey’s work. Includes detailed descriptions of his major works.
Dunning, Jennifer. Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. An acclaimed biography, revealing both Ailey’s creative genius and his personal difficulties. Especially valuable are the insights from Ailey’s notebooks and Dunning’s extensive interviews with those closest to him.
Foulkes, Julia L. Modern Bodies: Dance and American Modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. The history and social significance of the American modern dance movement, highlighting Ailey’s contribution to modern dance.
Tracy, Robert. Ailey Spirit: The Journey of an American Dance Company. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2004. A collection of superb color photographs of individuals and groups of dancers in performance, with the history of the company and quotations from dancers. Essential for those who have not seen the company perform.