Chapter 8: Ailey Coda

When and where did Ailey make choreographic debut?

1958, 92nd St

When did Alvin Aliey American Dance Theatre form?

1958

The success of Ailey points to what?

changing social dynamics in modern dance

True or false: ballet dominant concert art form by 1958 and balanchine/nycb reigned supreme

true

Ailey was born in and grew up

Texas and amid fierce racial segregation

Where did Ailey move to as a teen?

LA (became fascinated with Bill Robinson, Fred Astaire, and the Nicholas Brothers)

True or false: Ailey took gymnastics

true

What hooked Ailey on dance?

He saw Katherine Dunham company perform

Where did Ailey seek out for lessons?

Horton School

When did Ailey become company choreographer?

After Hortons death in 1953

Revelations was…

choreographed in 1960, focused on experiences of African Americans, very positive and spiritual, combined the dance technique contributions of Graham Humphrey Horton Dafora Dunham and Primus.

Ailey focused on…

theme of African American struggles

Ailey employed…

African American, Asian, White, and Latino dancers

What movements did Ailey fuse?

African and Caribbean with modern dance technique

Martha Graham employed…

Yuriko (Japanese American from internment camp) and Mary Hinkson and Matt Turney (African American women)

who broke color barriers in ballet?

Janet Collins (Metropolitan Opera) and Arthur Mitchell (soloist in NYCB)

Ailey deliberately placed the experience of who at the core of American dance?

African Americans and African American Dancers

True or false: other modern dancers worked the same as Ailey’s work at the time

false

Who associated with Judson Church?

small but influential group of innovators

modern dance in the 60s…

abandoned technical precision for more pedestrian movements, began challenging structures of choreography with the use of improv and chance, avoided narrative and theatrical elements of performance

Modern dance began to question what?

the dependency of dance on music

Who led the art form of modern dancers in 60s?

men, both white and african american

1973 Ailey company revived who and what?

Ted Shawn's Kinetic Molpai (merged tradition of white gay men with that of african american men)

did modern or ballet offer a more welcoming place for women at the time?

modern dance

Did racial integration happened quickly or slowly in the dance world?

slowly

The rise of Ailey was…

definitive

Aileys success occurred at what time?

a time of political liberalism and redefinition of the US as fundamentally ethnically diverse

The US gov chose Ailey to do what?

to represent American concert dance overseas for JFK international exchange program in 1962

Aileys success rests on the foundations of…

Dafora, Dunham, Primus, and others

In NYC Ailey trained with…

Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow, Karen Shook (ballet teacher)

Ailey appeared in what movie that caught the attention of choreographer Herbert Ross?

Carmen Jones

Choreographer Herbert Ross invited Ailey to perform in what?

A Broadway Show called House of Flowers

Ailey debuted what on 92nd St?

Blues Suite

Blues Suite focused on what?

the experience of African Americans “a somewhat angry statement about the racial conditions (of the US)”