{"id":306385,"date":"2021-07-23T00:56:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T21:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-a-poor-texas-kid-became-a-dance-legend\/"},"modified":"2023-10-03T11:41:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T08:41:57","slug":"how-a-poor-texas-kid-became-a-dance-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-a-poor-texas-kid-became-a-dance-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"#How a poor Texas kid became a dance legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of \u201cAiley\u201d \u2014 the new documentary about iconic choreographer Alvin Ailey, which opens in New York on Friday \u2014 greatness recognizes greatness when Cicely Tyson calls him \u201cthe Pied Piper of modern dance\u201d at his 1988 Kennedy Center Honors induction.<\/span><\/p>\n

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And for this master of movement \u2014 who founded the internationally renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company in New York in 1958 \u2014 it was all about bringing black people to the traditionally white world of dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be the kind of dancing that could be done for the man on the street, for the people,\u201d Ailey says in audio recordings of interviews conducted from 1988 to 1989, when he died from AIDS-related complications at 58. \u201cI wanted to show the black people that they could come down to these concert halls, that it was part of their culture that was being done there. And that it was universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alvin
Alvin Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company in 1958.<\/figcaption>
courtesy of NEON<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in rural Texas in 1931, Ailey started picking cotton when he was about 4. \u201cI mean, if you were black, you were nothing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Still, he found early inspiration in the black joy at the house parties and honky-tonks he would go to as a child. \u201cThose things stayed with me,\u201d he says of the African-American experience that led to pieces such as \u201cBlues Suite\u201d in 1958 and \u201cRevelations\u201d in 1960.<\/p>\n

But it was after he moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of World War II that a young Ailey discovered his true muse. \u201cI saw Katherine Dunham<\/a>,\u201d says Ailey of his life-changing theater experience watching the African-American dancer and choreographer. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe that there were black people on a legitimate stage. I was just taken into another world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alvin
Alvin Ailey in 1986.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then Ailey pirouetted to New York in 1954 and began studying with the likes of Martha Graham. \u201cBut I was the usual rebel,\u201d he says in the doc, \u201cand I had my own ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ideas led him to launch his own company \u2014 as well as the careers of such black dance legends as Judith Jamison, who would take over for Ailey after his death; and George Faison<\/a>, who became the first African-American to win a Best Choreography Tony for \u201cThe Wiz\u201d in 1975.<\/p>\n

\"Alvin
Alvin Ailey works his choreographic craft in 1986.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Ailey could be a tough taskmaster. \u201cHe would say things famously like, \u2018Would you do my choreography?\u2019 \u201d says Jamison in the documentary. \u201cBut he was also terribly encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ailey\u2019s relentless creativity, though, bordered on obsessive. \u201cHe was possessed,\u201d says Faison. \u201cAnd he had to serve that God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s director Jamila Wignot wanted to give a close-up to that commitment. \u201cIt was a kind of freedom of voice that he was able to have onstage that was different than [in] his life,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company in 1975<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite his \u201cgenerosity of spirit\u201d as an artist, Wignot said there was an \u201cincredible privacy\u201d about Ailey, who was gay. \u201cThat is not something that he was public about with the larger world,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s this interesting tension around him not being able to develop a kind of life outside of the world of dance \u2026 And so he gave everything of himself to his craft.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Wignot added, \u201cThere was a price to be paid for that,\u201d with all of the pressure contributing to Ailey having a breakdown in 1980. He was committed to a mental institution and diagnosed as bipolar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater<\/a> is located on West 55th Street.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even when he was very ill with AIDS and about to take his final bow, Ailey\u2019s \u201chapp<\/a>iest place\u201d \u2014 as Wignot put it \u2014 remained in the dance studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he got ill, they put a couch in the studio,\u201d says Sarita Allen, a former Alvin Ailey dancer. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t really working with us anymore; he couldn\u2019t. But he wanted to be around us.\u00a0 So as opposed to laying at home, he would just lay on the couch \u2026 and just be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related article :\u00a0Best Salsa Lessons in Cuba<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of \u201cAiley\u201d \u2014 the new documentary about iconic choreographer Alvin Ailey, which opens in New York on Friday \u2014 greatness recognizes greatness when Cicely Tyson calls him \u201cthe Pied Piper of modern dance\u201d at his 1988 Kennedy Center Honors induction. And for this master of movement \u2014 who founded the internationally renowned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/alvin-ailey-doc-index.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"#How a poor Texas kid became a dance legend","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[112498,79397,112668,112669,71430,91280,71772,90591,89402,146179],"class_list":["post-306385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7-22-21","tag-aids","tag-alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater","tag-bipolar","tag-bipolar-disorder","tag-cicely-tyson","tag-dance","tag-hiv-aids","tag-kennedy-center-honors","tag-salsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}