Alvin Ailey Dance School

By

Sampson I.M Onwuka



Mother said - "we names you Alvin Ailey Jr. because we had already decided that you were going to be our only child." Born and raised in Rogers Texas, Alvin Ailey would end up playing it forward in American Dance theaters and would turn out to be the face of Choreography. One area in the United States you get easily rewarded for any length of effort is in Dancing and very few dancers in contemporary or classic form discloses that world to us better than Alvin Ailey. 

The pictures below are selection from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater who recently celebrated the fifty years of American Dance Choreography. The choreography show several hints of modernity and several levels of Art infused with soul dancing and display for the best of American theaters. Alvin Ailey is well known for emphasis on routine and contextualizing certain basic American dance  with tradition European pieces. 

Some of the pieces performed by him or his group is no longer articles of history- they are well known and the performances reflect the era of the drama sets and drama pieces. There are degrees of separation between American plays in the 20's riddled with vulgar and everyday expressions form 30's that reflect the struggles of the Depression and contain some of the Dramas in the American theater history. But like some whose idea of dance like the plays is a process in motion,

We can add that Alvin Ailey choreography link these ages of the theater for written works to theater mainly for dances. In some sense and the short narrow history of the American theaters, we can come to see some of his dances and themes as something alive. It contains elements of American changing theatrical landscape - especially its reflection of European influences through Ballet and the local dances that has remained part of American expression for over a hundred years.

It is necessary to pick nose on African American dances - not that the recent re-invention of Krumps or a re-interpretation of James Brown will not merit a consideration but it seems that the the type of dancing in Ailey reflects African American dancing influences as it deviates from Europe ballet. The use of body movement  to narrate a story is perhaps too familiar in Swam lake but it is everywhere especially in the historical re-enactment of a play within the purview of its narrative.

There are changes in costumes too and for many some of the changes have a lasting image on how the play or the dance is remembered - for it seems that some of the difference between dances in the street and in the theater is not just the arrangement and harmony but that several dances which for instance reflect the styles of Ailey can be tried and repeated over and through. But changes in costumes are slow for Theater and for any show - especially Ballet which is slower than others we discover the creativity of the artist in how well the experts tune our dressing to the attention of the time without a break from its past.

In the above picture, we can suggest that there are strong elements of the past, but this past comes alive differently with separate meaning ridden to the emphasis placed on the combination.

We can mention that there are few names among the African Americans; Jimmy Truitte, Lester Horton and eventually Alvin Ailey that need to be mentioned, but in the Alvin AiIey who is well known in the City and the State of New York we arrive at an end, a shift from what was left of the early years of Ballentine who ballet to the harmony of American musical derived from folk-tale. If there are examples we can locate from these years is any important, there are things to be said about George Gershwin, especially in Porgy and Bess, for one thing, the original drama is titled Porgy and the drama is set is such a way that it illustrates the transition from folk tales involving a wanted African American and his defenses to the full staged drama reflecting eon.

The musical Porgy and Bess is a re-adaptation of Porgy and was fitting for musical as authored by Gershwin but reflecting the experiment in American musical which reached its peak in the Ailey given his originality. We compare the materials from those years and from later works of other American playwrights to movements in Ailey. The costumes in Ailey show a difference between what is artistically Ballet - classic in its decorum with emphasis on physical reflexes to can be gradually called American dances. There are American musicals repertoires and solo dances that shine light on the future but in equal measure of how they disappear from the classics show elements theater adapted to Ballet.    

Some of the dance steps may have changed, some of it may have elements of Rize in it's definition but the costume for both expression and standardizing some of the impresario local dancing define the taste of the author and perhaps his persuasion. Given the tendency to narrate the mind's construction of many showmen and perhaps the costume managers, we can not help to argue that far from all narrow realities. there are elements of the ultra man in Ailey. But here the narrative apply to influence than what is appropriate for a given choreography. How the dimension is met in the minds of the observe is the picture that he and his crew allow us to see. Painted to life in the visual forms of extreme art is an aspect of both theater and fashion that tend to imitate each other in the context of everyday life.

Although we relapse to the varieties of human energy and perhaps yoga in treated dances and play, there is nothing in the whole studies of Ailey and his presentation - both in dancing and costumes that leave us grappling with form and intention. The intentions are for art sake, the observation point to something else and the definition of what it means - perhaps in question of what is male in such environment raises his talent to bright light of public studies. It is possible to miss some hints of the ultra male but this is not the case, for all we know there are little light in the curvature but in his theater - the men are hard at work and only a few of the general male population can attempt some of the repertoire.

This is not an attempt to show Alvin Ailey in his theater but in the picture above, there are elements of Yoga - at least elements of dancing that is now close to Yoga. There is a departure in the costumes as well, that although changes in costume come overtime, some of the development in Dance theaters including the fashion has received little attention. Here as in the picture above, there an imitation of lingerie for women or one hand as if there is a migration of the street life into theater, or an imitation of theater by the life examples of most fashion mongers. Schoenberg Center for Research in Black Culture throw effective light on the evolution of Alvin Ailey, especially his well known 'Revelations' which has one of the best theatrical openings in dance theaters. 

The elements of discovery in this pictures are best discussed with parallel between fashion, costume and themes from real life circumstance. The images do not disappoint - especially if one has the interest to visit or two theaters in New York. 




Courtesy of the Revelations.



The impression from a watching a Choreography by George Balanchine and Sergei Pavlovitch Diaghilev is that dancing or choreography has a spiritual side. Perhaps this side appeals to modernist view of self-discovery which are easily littered with sexual deviant characteristic - perhaps part of some adolescent expectations of life. In the hive for expression, the colors of the design is staid to match the theme of 'revelation' as in the music, that even with first pictures, we can see a procession similarly to Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust a theme on 'Ibo Landing' - a persuasion on adult passage and a great revealing.

Clifton Brown @ Hans Van Manen, Courtesy of Paul Kolnik 

Some of the 5 spirituals that Alvin Ailey initiated includes, 

Pilgrim of sorrow,  Move, members, move,  That love….That Jesus Gives

That love me, all of which performed in theaters across United States. Majority of these Dance Themes are performed in theaters across the world and use original materials from obviously a master's piece. 

Daniel Hardy Center for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. For some, the use of pages of the Nutcracker and Tchaikovsky Swam Lake are transferable but the pages disappear with the new design apparels of life theaters such as this. Of course black outfit are kids stuff for these youngsters, but there is nothing to kid you about the language of the future which is not their past. The stories may well be told differently but the performance and choreography is still the same. How different? is what perhaps a costume can begin achieve


@Andrew Eccles

Perhaps a combination of basic physical beauty and the body expression survive differently in the picture above, but no doubt the issue of identity which has no real place in art if not in fashion enters the pictures and the models suffer in expression and routine but the outfit is a rare fit. In an age where the definition of what perhaps art is cast through the limits of information technology - where everything is questioned, we are to fully arrive at what art should look like. I for one, may or may not have seen various aspects of human thinking, would very much appreciate extreme fashion making their way into theaters.    

Although Alvin Ailey dance and music direction is well established, other theaters such as the American   Ballet Theater, Royal Danish Ballet, London Festival Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet,  Paris Opera Ballet,  La Scala Opera Ballet has some of his features. The African Company is done with, the Groove Theater is pushing the limits, there are much gaps in the arena of dancing which should not die with the light on Ailey.    

@Rachel Maclaren.

When a solo performance is achieved and the monologue between body movement and fashion or costume is given a standing, the audience will be expected to survive the first privileged encores and chorus from a mind opening experience. We refuse to see what others see, we accept that some standards exist for any direction in dancing and art, but there is taste in the rendition requiring all the praises beginning and ending with the harmony. What works for one piece of dancing may not always somewhere else but nothing in all works of theater endures that the author's perception. In some Opera where singing accompanied with music, it is infectious how the style of the presenters emerge some time in the course of the whole play.





Alvin Ailey


Lester Hutton

We end as we began with 'Reaching for Manhood' by Geoffrey Canada, that 

“Our beliefs about maleness, the mythology that surrounds being male, has led many boys to ruin. The image of male as strong is mixed with the image of male as violent. Male as virile gets confused with male as promiscuous. Male as virile gets confused as male as reckless. Male as intelligent often gets mixed with males as arrogant, racist and sexist.”  

“If we look around and see too many men in jail, or drugs…well as a society we must shoulder the blame and take responsibility for change.” Here we can may say that some attention on what music has done to American life may summarize a short look at the persuasions of Alvin Ailey as seen through his dances and his music, for here if not elsewhere, music has more than transformed several parts of American landscape. For dancing which goes way back to the earliest years of the colonials and the struggles for American Independence, there are departures in American socail landscape that need to be appropriated to help inspire all and asunder. We turn our attention to the development of the body in the course of music career it is better to start early, but the young generation they can attempt to leap forward in such a world and by expressing themselves through dancing. Only in time - perhaps with time can we learn how to appreciate the joy of dancing which torch lives.      

While some of can merely speak on transforming nature of fashion and costume and how well Chielo and Agbani dresses, the theaters offers interesting design of arts and fashion, especially the premier influences of models and Catwalks.