Alvin Ailey: Pioneer Of Modern Dance

Arthur Mitchell challenges preconceived ideas about dance by meddling with traditional dance ideas. Mitchell also inspired the community to take pride in themselves. He fought for those less fortunate so they would have equal opportunities. He gave African-Americans a chance in the dance world.

Influenced primarily by cultural roots and incredibly opportunity, Dunham had the luxury of studying in the West Indies as well as anthropological study of other cultural style dances. The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham’s life and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. And, importantly for the development of modern dance, her fieldwork began her investigations into a vocabulary of movement that would form the core of the Katherine Dunham Technique. Though many of Dunham’s primary influences lies within her multicultural experiences, Mark Turbyfill also seemed to play a large role in her future dance career, giving her private lessons despite his doubt in the opening of her student company (Kaiso! 187). Katherine Dunham has been list as an influence to “everyone from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse and Twyla Tharp. American dance, including ballet, modern dance, Hollywood and Broadway, would not be the same without her” (Aschenbrenner 226).

Katherine Dunham, an African American dancer from Chicago Illinois had a very successful dance career in American and European theatre in the 20th century. Dunham was a choreographer as well as a dancer. She directed her own dance company for many years before she died May 2006. Dunham was known as the “matriarch and queen mother of black dance” meaning that she was the “head” or “leader” of black dance. Her works and pieces all showed similarity and differences throughout the time in which they were produced. Most of her works were not solos but they were danced with her and her company in which she taught various classes based on her technique.

Fear is paralyzing! When we become fearful we prevent ourselves from growing. In general I wish I could “do-over” every time I let fear get the best of me. A life experience that comes to mind is when I auditioned for the Alvin Ailey summer dance program. I was 13 at the time and my passion for dance was growing exponentially. Auditioning seemed like a great idea, however, by the end of it I wished I would have stayed at home. I was not ready mentally, physically, or emotionally for the pressure of auditioning. I found myself frustrated, hurt, and ultimately embarrassed. Girls younger than me performed at a higher level, and had better technique. On my way home I promised myself I would never audition again.

As a child, Lester Hortons was very interested in Native American culture. He spent his adolescent years studying Indian folktale, visiting Indian burial mounds, and writing about his interests in the culture (Perces 4). Horton’s fascination with dance stemmed back to the viewing of his first performance by The Denishawn Dancers (Perces 4). Modern dancers, Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Dennis included Indian, Siamese, Japanese, Javanaes, and Egyptian dance styles in the performance. This medley of cultural dance styles heightened Horton’s interest in dance an died to his study of ballet, Greek dance, and modern dance (Peres 4). Horton began his training in ballet and Greek dance, but became dissatisfied with ballet. After suspending his ballet training, Horton

Alvin Ailey was an accomplished dancer and choreographer whose African-American heritage influenced his works in the 20th century. His successful dance career has gained international recognition and acclaim thus rendering a significant legacy. Ailey’s background as a dancer and choreographer had many strong influences from social, cultural, economic and political aspects during his early life. His African-American heritage has greatly influenced his works. Alvin was the founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (1958-), galvanized and stabilized an African American presence in theatrical dance. An outstanding performer, choreographer, company director, and mentor to scores of dance artists, Ailey oversaw the growth of his small, pick-up group of seven dancers into a large, carefully managed, internationally-renowned enterprise including several ensembles of dancers and a thriving school in New York City housed in the largest building devoted to dance in the United States. Along the way, Ailey changed the landscape of modern dance by developing new audiences for its performance through a consistent combination of exceptional artistry and wellcoordinated community outreach programs. In all, Ailey invigorated the art of dance with his distinctive creative imagination, his “blood memories” of cultural formations he witnessed as a child-- including the jook joint and the black church --and the strong survivalist ethic he learned as an African American man born in the

Lester Horton was an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Born January 23, 1906 in Indianapolis, Indiana and died on November 2, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. Lester Horton was born into a working-class family. He was the son of Iradell and Pollyanna Horton. His passions for dance was aroused by his very own American Indian culture in the wake of watching tribal dances. Lester Horton was one of the few pioneers of modern dance who made sacrifices in order to bring black dancers to the concert stages. Although, he was not black, his choreography and work had a significant influence on artists of the African Diaspora. Lester Horton’s goal was to create a dance technique that was anatomically corrective and utilized the widest

Companies liked to used him for specialty character because he was exciting and limber and small. Therefore, it proved the stereotype that African Americans does not have the right body type is wrong. Another very excellent African American ballet dancer is Arthur Mitchell, he was a lead dancer and first African American in the New York City Ballet. Arthur even started a school, and his mentor Balanchine sent teachers from the New York City Ball to help him train students. At first, he had around 30 students and then grow to 4oo within few months.

Dance is an ever evolving form of art; in much the same way that one can categorize and differentiate between eras and styles of architecture one can also do so with dance. These eras at times have sharp delineations separating them from their antecedents, other times the distinction is far more subtle. Traditional forms of dance were challenged by choreographers attempting to expand the breadth and increase the depth of performance; preeminent among such visionaries was Seattle born dancer and choreographer Mark Morris. Mark Morris' began as one of the millions of hopeful individuals attempting to simply make a career in dance; he not only succeeded but managed to have a lasting effect on the entire landscape of dance.

The type of music that was in the video “Sinnerman” by Alvin Ailey Revelations started off religious like and it had soft singing with lyrics which sounded like a opera. As the video went on, the music instantly changed to more of a tribal sound with the use of drums, maracas, and a male singer (0:31) with a choir in the back. Throughout the video, the lyrics are saying “Lord won’t you hide me?”, this represents the fact that this performance is a spiritual and a connection to God. The type of dance in this performance would be ballet, modern, and also contemporary. It would be considered ballet because of the flips, turns, and leaps that the dancers do, and it is considered modern and contemporary because of the freedom of movement that is

“A pioneer is someone who is willing to stake everything on an idea, on a concept, on a change.” (History of Modern Dance) Martha Graham, along with and Doris Humphrey are both pioneers of modern dance,

Alvin Ailey was a Modern Dance choreographer and he blended modern, jazz and ethnic dance styles. He formed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York in 1958. His company was composed of exclusively black dancer until 1963 when he decided to integrate his company. He choreographed close to 80 pieces, including Cry, Blue suites, Night Creatures and his most famous work Revelations. More people have seen Revelations across the globe than any other modern dance piece. Alvin Ailey died on December 1,1989 at the age of 58.

Ballet “Cry” simply showed to us real life of all African women. Every single American people know what kind of life they went through. Therefore it touched their heard. Alvin Ailey’s “Cry” presented wonderfully combined movements, technique and emotion. Ms. Donna Wood uses tragic face, a mask of sorrow. It is a face born to cry, but when she smiles it is with an innocent radiance, joyfulness that simple and lovely. She never tries consciously to please an audience. He was not only concentrating in movements and physical performance, but also using flowing white gown

Renowned choreographer Alonzo King is the Balanchine of a new style of dance, his style of dance, a style shying away from the expected and catapulting its audience into a state of wonderment. Alonzo King uses sharp lines intertwined with severe movements all engaging a classical technique in order to create movements, unseen to the dance world. King’s impressive résumé includes having trained with a number of world-renowned ballet companies, and setting works on an even more substantial number of companies, along with establishing his own celebrated company: Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco, California.

It was during this time that man who later came to be known as the “Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance”, Jack Cole, was busy developing his technique. Jack Cole had studied modern, ballet, and ethnic dance, had been a student at Denishawn and had done choreographic work in the nightclub scene. In the 1940’s there was a serious demand for groups of trained dancers for film work and Jack Cole was the one who started developing these trained jazz dancers for the Hollywood movie musicals. Also, during this time Gene Kelly, began making his mark as a dancer in Hollywood musicals. His impact on jazz was his individual, energetic dance style that combined athletic, gymnastic qualities with jazz and tap.