Dancing Revelations : Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture

In the early 1960s, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was a small, multi-racial company of dancers that performed the works of its founding choreographer and other emerging artists. By the late 1960s, the company had become a well-known African American artistic group closely tied to the Civil Rights struggle. In Dancing Revelations, Thomas DeFrantz chronicles the troupe's journey from a small modern dance company to one of the premier institutions of African American culture. He not only charts this rise to national and international renown, but also contextualizes this progress within the civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights struggles of the late 20th century. DeFrantz examines the most celebrated Ailey dances, including Revelations, drawing on video recordings of Ailey's dances, published interviews, oral histories, and his own interviews with former Ailey company dancers. Through vivid descriptions and beautiful illustrations, DeFrantz reveals the relationship between Ailey's works and African American culture as a whole. He illuminates the dual achievement of Ailey as an artist and as an arts activist committed to developing an African American presence in dance. He also addresses concerns about how dance performance is documented, including issues around spectatorship and the display of sexuality, the relationship of Ailey's dances to civil rights activism, and the establishment and maintenance of a successful, large-scale Black Arts institution. Throughout Dancing Revelations, DeFrantz illustrates how Ailey combined elements of African dance with motifs adapted from blues, jazz, and Broadway to choreograph his dances. By re-interpreting these tropes of black culture in his original and well-received dances, DeFrantz argues that Ailey played a significant role in defining the African American cultural canon in the twentieth century. As the first book to examine the cultural sources and cultural impact of Ailey's work, Dancing Revelations is an important contribution to modern dance history and criticism as well as African-American studies. In the early 1960s, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was a small, multi-racial company of dancers that performed the works of its founding choreographer and other emerging artists. By the late 1960s, the company had become a well-known African American artistic group closely tied to the Civil Rights struggle. In Dancing Revelations, Thomas DeFrantz chronicles the troupe's journey from a small modern dance company to one of the premier institutions of African American culture. He not only charts this rise to national and international renown, but also contextualizes this progress within the civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights struggles of the late 20th century.DeFrantz examines the most celebrated Ailey dances, including Revelations, drawing on video recordings of Ailey's dances, published interviews, oral histories, and his own interviews with former Ailey company dancers. Through vivid descriptions and beautiful illustrations, DeFrantz reveals the relationship between Ailey's works and African American culture as a whole. He illuminates the dual achievement of Ailey as an artist and as an arts activist committed to developing an African American presence in dance. He also addresses concerns about how dance performance is documented, including issues around spectatorship and the display of sexuality, the relationship of Ailey's dances to civil rights activism, and the establishment and maintenance of a successful, large-scale Black Arts institution.Throughout Dancing Revelations, DeFrantz illustrates how Ailey combined elements of African dance with motifs adapted from blues, jazz, and Broadway to choreograph his dances. By re-interpreting these tropes of black culture in his original and well-received dances, DeFrantz argues that Ailey played a significant role in defining the African American cultural canon in the twentieth century. As the first book to examine the cultural sources and cultural impact of Ailey's work, Dancing Revelations is an important contribution to modern dance history and criticism as well as African-American studies. Frontmatter Introduction (page xiii) ONE Revelations 1962 (page 3) Why Revelations Worked (page 14) BREAK Black Modernism (page 19) Situating Revelations in African American Cultural Life (page 23) TWO Early Dances (page 26) Ailey's Childhood: Race Matters (page 27) BREAK Unquenchable Racial Desire (page 35) Blues Suite (page 38) Ailey's Early Dances (page 44) Hermit Songs (page 46) THREE Early Company (page 51) Early Years in New York (page 54) Early Residencies (page 57) Southeast Asia Tour (page 60) BREAK "Official" African American Culture (page 69) Riedaiglia (page 73) FOUR Revelations II: 1969 (page 75) BREAK Versioning (page 82) Multiracial Concert Dance (page 85) Revelations 1975 (page 89) FIVE Touring, Touring, Touring (page 93) Quintet (page 94) Swelling Popularity (page 99) BREAK Jazz Dance (page 101) Flowers (page 104) The Popular Audience (page 108) BREAK No Exit from Racism (page 112) SIX Reflecting a Spectrum of Experience (page 115) Masekela Language (page 117) The Lark Ascending (page 127) Hidden Rites (page 130) SEVEN Other Dances (page 136) Feast of Ashes (page 137) BREAK Black Dancer, White Dance (page 145) The River (page 148) EIGHT Ailey Celebrates Ellington (page 160) The Ellington Connection (page 161) BREAK Heroes (page 167) Ailey Celebrates Ellington (page 171) Pas de "Duke" (page 174) Ellingtonia (page 177) NINE Gender and Spectatorship (page 180) Cry (page 182) Love Songs (page 185) Masked Spectatorship: Ailey's Representation of Sexuality (page 188) BREAK Sex (page 189) Streams (page 192) BREAK Black Atlantic Dance (page 197) TEN Later Dances (page 200) Memoria (page 205) Au Bord du Precipice (page 213) Survivors (page 223) BREAK Alvin Ailey, Public and Private (page 229) ELEVEN Concluding Moves (page 232) The Ailey after Ailey (page 235) Revelations 2003 (page 236) APPENDIX Choreography by Alvin Ailey (page 241) Notes (page 257) Bibliography (page 275) Index (page 289)