My inspiration Alvin Ailey

Ailey’s “Revelations”: Wade in the Water

Alvin Ailey’s Wade in the Water section from his choreographic dance piece “Revelations” was very interesting to me and exciting for me to watch! It started out with the use of rounded arms both being held up is the dancers walked and as a resemblance of birds when the dancers were bending over. The was turning and props such as long pieces of fabric, an umbrella, some kind of pole, and a fabric flag type of thing used by the dancer. The dancer wore white costumes. The movement was very linear except of when the dancers used their arms, which were round at many different points at the beginning of the section. When the actual words of Wade in the Water started being song and/or heard, the dancers’ movement then became more fluid, and they had a sense of water. The dancers’ movements started to use a more African style of movement and their body used more undulations. They used both full body undulations and undulations of the arms. The dancers also used head and neck rolls as well as lengthening of the torso/chest and abdomen. There was also a good use of turns, both triplet turns and arabesques turns. The dancers also always had a sense of length about them, no matter what movement they where carrying-out/performing. It was quite amazing!

Why I Want to Research Alvin Ailey

I am a hip-hop/street dancer. As a dancer who started late in the craft, starting my second semester of my freshman year in college, I heard about Desmond Richardson, who was also a street dancer before being formally and professionally trained. He trained at Alvin Ailey’s school. I’ve always heard great things about the Ailey School of dance and wanted to learn more about it. I also would like to go there one day. As a member of Indiana University’s African American dance company, I have had the pleasure of taking class from Elena Anderson, a dancer and teacher with a very extensive background in the modern dance Horton technique. Alvin Ailey was a student who trained with Lester Horton and became a great dancer and choreographer of the Horton technique! Ailey uses Horton technique as a basis at his school and in many of his choreographic works. Ailey also was a “leading figure in the establishment of modern dance as a popular art form in America” (New York Times). Alvin Ailey “played an important role in establishing black modern dance” (New York Times). He is “arguably the most important black American choreographer in the short history of modern dance”