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Recommended: What did alvin ailey influence in dance

Alvin Ailey, a dancer born in 1931, founded what is known today as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Born in Texas, Ailey faced intense racism and discrimination growing up. As a result he strove to created a multi-racial company where dancers were judged upon ability and not their race or background. This was groundbreaking since at the time racism led to limited opportunities for African American dancers. At 22 Ailey joined the Horton dance company where he would eventually become the artistic director after Horton’s passing. Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958. Popularizing modern dance, Ailey became known throughout the world as he traveled internationally with his dance company. Emphasizing the theatricality of dance, Ailey utilized intricate costumes, stunning lighting displays and makeup in his performances. The style of Ailey’s choreography incorporates aligned ballet legs with a more loose, “modern” torso. Ailey choreographed 79 pieces for the company before his death in December of 1989, one of the most acclaimed being Revelations. Revelations was created by Ailey in 1960 and brought fame to the company. The highly acclaimed piece is still preformed today by the company’s dancers. Ailey died of AIDS in 1989 after choreographing countless pieces for his own company and others such as the American Ballet Theater.

Ailey believed that he shouldn’t be the only choreographer for his company so after his passing new choreographers created pieces for the troupe. One of these choreographers was Ronald K. Brown. Brown created his dance company Evidence in 1985. He often combined modern dance, West-African movements and Afro-Caribbean Dance when choreographing his pieces. He choreographed a piece ...

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...aphy shows the devotion of the dancers to their craft. As a dancer myself, watching the performance I was starstruck by the weight carried by even the simplest of movements. Each performer had passion and an unbreakable focus that emphasized every action. Through their facial expressions the dancers emoted feelings of joy, anger, jealously and more. Being an audience member at this performance showed me a whole other perspective to a dance piece, as I am usually the one that is on stage. With a performance coming up, I learned the importance of presence on stage from the dancers in the show. Each one had a strong presence that made them captivating, you couldn’t ignore them. I am excited to perform now and am inspired to put even more effort into dance. All in all, I found the Alvin Ailey performance inspiring and it drove me to improve as a dancer and a performer.

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