Born on 5 January 1931 in Rogers, Texas, the only child of parents who separated when he was two, choreographer Alvin Ailey (b. 1931–d. 1989) moved to Los Angeles with his mother in 1942. Shy from an itinerant Texas life, Ailey turned to dance when a high-school classmate introduced him to Lester Horton’s studio in 1949. He immersed himself in study and developed a weighty, smoldering performance style that suited his athletic body. Ailey moved to New York in 1954 to dance with Carmen DeLavallade in the Broadway production of House of Flowers. Performing success led him to found Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958. The company began as a repertory company devoted to both modern dance classics and new works created by Ailey and other young artists. The critically acclaimed first concerts in 1958 and 1960 marked the beginning of a new era of dance performance devoted to African American themes. His dance Blues Suite (1958), set in and around a barrelhouse, depicts the desperation and joys of life on the edge of poverty in the South. Highly theatrical and immediately accessible, the dance contains sections of early-20th-century social dances, Horton dance technique, Jack Cole–inspired jazz dance, and ballet partnering. Early performances of Revelations (1960) established Ailey’s company as the foremost dance interpreter of African American experience. The dance quickly became the company’s signature ballet, eclipsing previous concert attempts at dancing to sacred Black music. Set to a series of spirituals and gospel selections, Revelations depicts a spectrum of Black religious worship, including richly sculpted group prayer (“I’ve Been Buked”), a ceremony of ritual baptism (“Wade in the Water”), a moment of introverted, private communion (“I Wanna Be Ready”), a duet of trust and support for a minister and devotee (“Fix Me, Jesus”), and a final, celebratory gospel exclamation, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.” Ailey’s ballet Feast of Ashes (1962), created for the Harkness Ballet, is acknowledged as the first successful pointe ballet choreographed by a modern dancer. Major distinctions and honors followed Ailey throughout his choreographic career, which spanned the creation of more than fifty dances for his own company and others. The Ailey company continues as a highly successful operation after Ailey’s death, and is affiliated with a large dance complex in New York City that offers comprehensive courses in dance study as well as venues for performance.
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