Biography on Alvin Ailey

Biography on Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey was born in Texas in 1931, he was the choreographer who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 1958.   The Alvin Ailey American Dance theatre was known for demonstrating issues of which effected the African American Culture such as multi- racial issues i.e. segregation and equality. It establishes using and representing modern dance around the world. One of his best known dance work is “Revelations” which connotes and shows a spiritual meaning. As, the dance displays and shows Alvin Ailey’s life in stages such as baptism and going to church.  He wanted to make modern dance known as a whole and for it to be recognized. Alvin Ailey played an important role within establishing black modern dance. Through being one of the most successful choreographer in America.

He became a noted Broadway dancer, and in the late 1950’s became a choreographer of work that explored a wide and vast range. Alvin Ailey became less of an important figure/role within the African American Culture of 20th century modern dance. He grew up in a small area of within Texas in the town “Navasota”. One of Alvin Ailey’s main inspirations is that he grew up in church services that he attended. Also, the music that he heard within his local dance class. This inspired through what type of music he used in his piece which was gospel music. Ailey was encouraged to follow dancing. He launched reading modern dance with Lester Horton in 1949. Furthermore, he joined Horton's dance company the following year.

Some of his key career highlights consists of Ailey achieved his greatest fame with his own dance company, which he founded in 1958. That same year, he debuted Blues Suite, a piece that drew from his southern roots. Another of his major early works was Revelations, which drew inspiration from the African American music of his youth and young age by attending church services. “Revelations came from Ailey's "'blood memories' of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church."

The company was known for its vibrant artistry.

 He stopped performing in the mid-1960s, but he continued to choreograph several masterpieces such as “Ailey's Masakela Language”. Furthermore, he also expanded his dance company by establishing the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble of within the same year. This was known as one of Alvin Ailey’s best accomplishes.

 In 1988, Ailey was privileged by the Kennedy Centre for his huge contributions to the arts.

 Alvin Ailey "had a big heart and a tremendous love of the dance," dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov told The New York Times, adding, "His work made an important contribution to American culture."

Despite his ultimate death, Ailey continues to be an important figure in the arts through the ballets he created. He was an illustration of a important figure in modern dance as a current art form in America.

 “Ailey directed the growth of his small, pick-up group of seven dancers into a large, carefully managed, internationally-renowned enterprise including several companies of dancers.”

Ailey also changed the landscape of modern dance through the use of developing new audiences for its performance through a consistence combination through its use of “creativity and artistry”. His creative imagination through dance was based on the creative artistry of “blood memories” of some of the cultural formations that he witnessed as a youth. He learnt so much through being an African American within the depression-era south. For example, he learnt that he had to work twice as hard as a black person. In order, to succeed and achieve. Ailey wanted his dance pieces not only to connect to the audience spiritually but emotionally too as well. He wanted his entire dance to match with imaginary story telling.