Dance Class

October 26th, 2007

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater travels from New York to share its vision of African American culture with Shanghai, writes Sam Gaskin.

Alvin Ailey’s Artistic Director Judith Jamison sees connections between the nature of dance and great cities of the world. “Modern dance is ever-evolving, just like cities are,” she says. “Like our repertory, cities speak of the past, present and future.”

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) has certainly evolved a great deal itself, building a rich history along the way. Since its inception in 1958, the company has developed a catalogue that covers every era of modern dance, and includes styles such as Horton, Graham, and Dunham, named after the choreographers who developed them, mixed with more traditional and classical elements from jazz and ballet.

Alvin Ailey formed the company with the aim of creating a repository for modern dance classics, including signature pieces by other African American choreographers, as well as his own works. Undoubtedly, the most famous of Ailey’s dances is ‘Revelations.’ Set to spirituals and gospel music, the piece has its roots deep in African American culture, which the company champions and celebrates.

When the dance was first performed, all of the dancers in the AAADT were African American, a deliberate attempt to increase opportunities for African American dancers. Jamison herself first joined the AAADT after a failed dance audition in 1964. She says Ailey, watching from the side of the stage, “saw something” in her that day. That “something” would lead Jamison to a celebrated career dancing with the company and, when Ailey died in 1989, to take up the role of Artistic Director. While the majority of dancers in the company today remain African American, Jamison says her 30 touring performers are as “diverse as the country we represent.”

For the Shanghai program, one of the pieces is the Pas de Duke, written in 1976 as a collaboration between Ailey and jazz great Duke Ellington, and originally choreographed for Jamison and famed Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. Jamison describes the duet as “a challenge between a man and a woman full of technical virtuosity and humor.” Another Alvin-Ellington collaboration, The River, is also on the bill. Although the body of work AAADT is touring is steeped in such history, it will be given a new lease of life by contemporary performers, including 2007 Bessie Award winning dancer Clifton Brown.

Such re-interpretation is crucial to AAADT’s and modern dance’s continued evolution. You need only look at the how popular hip hop and street dancing have become in Shanghai to see how the adoption of other countries’ music can, as Jamison says, “transform the way people move,” and extend “the boundaries of the art.” Certainly, the company has always recognized the creative potential of cultural exchange. Ailey’s own mentor Lester Horton was creating works that drew on Native American and Japanese dance as early as the 1940s.

The AAADT engaged in just this kind of exchange when it last visited Shanghai in 2004, conducting workshops with Shanghai dance students, and will do so again this time around at the Shanghai Ballet School. The lessons three years ago were communicated non-verbally but Jamison remembers watching the students’ “realization of discovery when they experienced new movements for the first time. They felt fearless and had great courage in wanting to learn as much as possible, which is the pre-requisite for being a dancer.”

With the ever-evolving nature of dance Jamison suggests, these exchanges may well weave themselves into the company’s future works. But for the present, this is a chance for audiences to see some of the most vibrant contemporary dance performances from one of America’s most celebrated companies.

Who is Alvin Ailey?

1931

Alvin Ailey is born in the small town of Rogers, Texas. Life in the racially segregated South was tough for African Amercans, and made tougher for Ailey when his father abandons him and his 17-year-old mother, Lula.

1937

From age six, Ailey attends the True Vine Baptist Church and later discovers the Dew Drop Inn, a dance hall and bar. Both venues make a deep impression on the young Alvin, later serving as inspiration for his choreography.

1943

Having moved to Los Angeles, Ailey sees his first live dance performance during a junior high school field trip to watch the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Ailey’s interest in dance is lit.

1949

Ailey discovers the work of Lester Horton. When a friend shows him some some of Horton’s moves Ailey says he “nearly fainted.” Asking “Oh, my God, what is that?” his friend replied, “That’s modern dancing.”

1958

Ailey and six other dancers perform three works, including Ailey’s “Blues Suite,” in New York. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Company is born.

1960

Ailey choreographs ‘Revelations,’ which would become his most popular work and one of the most-performed ballets of the 20th century.

1962-1985

The Company Ailey founded embarks on historic tours to Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and Russia. In 1985 the company is the first to go on a US government-sponsored tour of China following the normalization of Sino-American relations.

1988

Alvin Ailey receives the Kennedy Center Honors from President Reagan, the highest official distinction for creative artists. The following year Ailey dies, passing on the role of Artistic Director to Judith Jamison.