Research Paper On Alvin Ailey

Jennifer Huang

Dance 100

Professor Steele

March 28th, 2014 Alvin Ailey Alvin Ailey was born on January 5th, 1931 in Rogers, Texas and passed away from AIDS on December 1st 1989. Ailey was a well-known African-American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 located in New York. What made Ailey so different from many choreographers at that time was his race and skin color because society condoned African-Americans practicing in the arts during his time. Not only that, his unique teaching style of not limiting his dancers one specific style, but to stir them in the right direction of creating their own styles that best fits their own individual talent. The Alvin Ailey American Dance

From 0:07-0:17 the male dance is in a stand and pointing his arms from right to left telling all his friends to come join him in dancing. Then at 0:17-0:23 the man is joined by his friends and are dancing in unison by kicking their feet straight up to the sky while their hands are in a fist stance position. This dance was influence by the creation of the Blues and Jazz music. During this era, Blues and Jazz music was not well known and was played only in saloons and bawdy houses. This dance is different from other pieces because it has a unique political circumstance and includes different types of ballet, social dance, and the Graham, or Horton technique. The male roles in this dance are largely defined by the interactions between the females. We see that the African American Jazz dancers are having fun dancing and doing what they like. They are very enthusiastic and have motions that display a unique style. The unique style is the dancer uses moves that speak to the audience and are not performing because they have to, but because they want to do this to encourage other African Americans that it’s all right to dance to your hearts

Ailey dedicated this song to his mother and all of the African women at that time, especially the mothers out there. He knew of the hardships and troubles they were going through. This piece depicts a women’s journey through the agonies of slavery to a state of grace. In the beginning from 0:00-0:17, we see a women wearing white and covering her face. Then she slowly moves her arms outwards and reveals her face. We see a strong woman who despite living her life as a slave, learn to be willful and indestructible. What fascinates me the most in this piece is from 0:18-0:49when the woman is holding a white cloth in front of her and swaying from side to side crossing one foot over the other. It shows she is unaffected by the American’s actions, which implies how she has grown tired of it all. She moves with the attitudes of courage and boldness and we see all the difficulties she has been through with the expressions on her