Reflections of Alvin - choreographer Alvin Ailey - Abstract

Dance Magazine, Dec, 1998 by Don Mcdonagh

Ailey had spoken with Ellington about a retrospective, and preliminary plans had been sketched out. In the festival program, he said, "Duke also liked to have his music danced. He thought that dance was a major means of communicating what he was trying to get through to people, which was a love of life and a caring about mankind." Adding his own commitment, Ailey remarked, "I loved him, I was stunned by him, I was inspired by him. He wrote the heartbeat and rhythms of this century, and more than that, he celebrated the beauty and uniqueness of man. And that is what I would like to do in the Ellington celebration."

As are all choreographers, Ailey was also inspired by his dancers, in particular Jamison, his successor as artistic director, and Dudley Williams, whom he regularly featured in repertory and for whom he also created showcase numbers. Part of the bicentennial year celebration was the glittery Pas de "Duke" for Jamison and Mikhail Baryshnikov that showed their individual talents to wonderful advantage. It fell into the category of a pas d'occasion, and a very special patriotic occasion it was. Williams's solo, Love Songs (1972), celebrated his lyrical intensity, which could be seen regularly in repertory, especially in the "Fix Me, Jesus" section of Ailey's signature piece, Revelations (1960). Jamison was the outstanding female star of the company, and Ailey celebrated women's endurance in Cry (1971), which was made "for all black women everywhere, especially our mothers." Jamison regularly brought the house down with it.

Outreach was a way of life with Ailey before it became a catchword in the performing arts. His companies regularly made school visits to demonstrate their work to students who might not otherwise have had an opportunity to see professional dance, and his school had--and has--an active scholarship program. Expanding the idea of arts awareness to include other concerns, the company developed the intensive six-week summer program called the AileyCamp.

Edgar Koerner, president of the Children's Aid Society in New York City, describes the program: "The Ailey administration came to us with the concept of an intensive six-week session for eleven- to thirteen-year-olds to take place in the summer. We maintain centers in a variety of locations throughout the city, and we settled on Washington Heights for the program. The cost was shared fifty-fifty. We provided the physical plant and the participants with whatever incidental assistance we were in a position to give. The Ailey company supplied the teaching staff and the program. We post notices in our centers describing its availability, and from the children who respond, we and the Ailey company select participants, who receive dance instruction in a variety of styles, then write about their experiences in the program. We have counselors available to assist the participants in any way that we can.

"At the end of each session, scholarships are offered for further study at the Ailey school to those who show the interest and have the desire for a professional career. The bulk of the program is its dance classes, but the kids also have regular dally writing assignments, which help develop traditional academic skills. Ronni Flowers, a former member of the Ailey company, ran the program for the first four formative years. The program is now in its fifth year, and we are very pleased with it. It is well conceived." AileyCamps had previously been established in Kansas City (1989) and Baltimore (1992), with equally encouraging results.