Flashback Friday Looks at Dancer, Choreographer, and Activist Alvin Ailey

As we move into what very well could be the last officially recognized Black History Month for a few years (hey, don't scoff, there's nothing left on the table these days!) Flashback Friday takes a look at the life and career of influential dancer, choreographer, and activist Alvin Ailey Jr (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989). Ya know what, it's a real friggin' drag to write these things and look at the death dates of awesome people and think "Man, I'm glad they didn't live long enough to see what's happening these days." But here we are. So, to counteract the funk of these days, let's celebrate life, lives, and art, and this month, Black Lives, Because They Matter!

 

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Ailey was born and grew up in the divisively segregated deep South of Texas, where he was bounced from one location to another as his mother sought what meager employment she could find, usually in the cotton fields. His father had left the family shortly after his birth, leaving his wife and child to fend for themselves. He grew to fear white men, having seen the KKK prominently where they lived, and the effects of repeated rapes of his mother by employers. He learned to take solace in the church, and in journalling, a practice he continued for the rest of his life.

 

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It wasn't until a move to the LA area when Ailey was 12, joining his mother who had relocated there the year before, that he began to flourish a bit and come into his own. Success in school was bolstered by trips to the theater to see the likes of Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne, Billie Holliday, and Count Bassie. It was at this time that he was also introduced to dance theater, and a spark was ignited.

 

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In his late teens, Ailey was introduced to the Lester Holt studio in LA where he began lessons in modern, jazz, and ballet, along with Native American dance movement. He had previously rejected the simpler forms of tap, but modern dance allowed him to also explore the sensuality of his body and forms of movement as he grew into his sexuality. Being gay was another form of divineness for him, along with being Black and male; not a lot of work for such a demographic in dance. In college, he chose to study more academic subjects at UCLA and later at San Francisco State, where he met Maya Angelou, with whom he formed a nightclub act.

 

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Ailey joined Horton's company in 1953, studying various techniques as well as studying art and theater and teaching children's classes. When Horton died suddenly later that year, Ailey, with the support of the much more experienced company dancers, stepped into the role of choreographer and artistic director, if only to help the company fulfill outstanding performance obligations. His future was in motion.

 

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Like his predecessor, Ailey was also instrumental in designing all aspects of dance, from lighting to sets. After a move to New York with dance partner Carmen de Lavallade, the two appeared in various theater and dance projects on Broadway and on television. But seeing a lack of choreography that best suited his drive and tastes, he did what his predecessor Horton did and gathered dancers around him to perform his own creations.

 

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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was founded in 1958 and began its slow, painful rise in the dance and theater world for recognition and acceptance. Sporadic yet well-received performances, including the first renditions of his masterpieces "Blues Suite" and "Revelations," eventually got him noticed in 1960 by President Kennedy's State Department, which led to touring the world on behalf of the country and Kennedy's push to exhibit American arts to the world. The relationship was not without its frustrations. The company was billed as an "ethnic" group and not simply as a Black American dance group. In addition, the FBI kept a close eye on Ailey's sexuality, threatening punishment if any homosexuality or even effeminacy as they viewed it was exhibited.

 

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Returning home, performances were hard to come by, and over a decade of slow building with a grant here, a fellowship there, creating a name for themselves was wearing on the company. In 1970, Ailey announced he was ready to call it quits. but the State Department stepped in to help things along and sent them on a tour of North Africa. This was followed by an already-in-the-works tour of Russia, the first such cultural exchange of its kind, and the response was fanatical. With such zeal and adulation in their pocket, they returned once again to the US but with renewed promise. The early seventies saw Ailey working his narrative structures in such experimental works as "Flowers" with rock music by Pink Floyd and Janis Joplin, about the death of a drug-addicted star based on Joplin. And "Shaken Angels," a harsh reality piece about a couple fraught with violence, pot smoking, and heroin addiction.

While his work with AAADT and its later Alvin Ailey Dance Center (now The Ailey School) focuses primarily on Black dance culture and its voices, Ailey did work with other companies, namely American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and The Metropolitan Opera.

Ailey was reticent to describe himself as a Black choreographer, preferring to be simply known as a choreographer, though his work is rooted in his experiences as a Black man. His sexuality was also an element of his work that was subversive and opaque; he kept his private life well-cloistered. When he died of HIV complications in 1989 he requested his death be announced simply as a blood disorder to hide his mother from the stigma of AIDS. He was 58. His funeral, held at the esteemed Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side was attended by more than 4,000 mourners, and performances by Maya Angelou, a reading of a notice from President George Bush, Mayor David Dinkins, and of course Ailey dancers on a makeshift stage.

The following video includes reflections and performances from his funeral.

The work of The Ailey School and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to be a world-renowned and celebrated voice of Black dance culture.

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