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

319 Pages·2004·4.39 MB·English
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DANCING REVELATIONS THOMAS F. DEFRANTZ OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page i D A N C I N G R E V E L A T I O N S DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page ii Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture 1 2004 DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page iii D A N C I N G R E V E L A T I O N S T H O M A S F. D E F R A N T Z DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page iv 1 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright © 2004by Oxford University Press,Inc. Published by Oxford University Press,Inc. 198Madison Avenue,New York,New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark ofOxford University Press All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DeFrantz,Thomas Dancing revelations :Alvin Ailey’s embodiment ofAfrican American culture / Thomas F.DeFrantz. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-515419-3 1. Ailey,Alivn. 2. Dancers—United States—Biography. 3. Choreographers— United States—Biography. 4. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. 5. African American dance. I. Title. GV1785.A38D44 2003 792.8'028'092—dc21 2002156670 Credits: Photographs:frontispiece and pages 5,8,19,47,63,95,101courtesy and copyright by Jack Mitchell;cover illustration and pages 11,12,courtesy and copyright by J.Peter Happel;page 43courtesy Harvard Theater Collection,The Houghton Library, copyright by Alix Jeffry;page 55courtesy and copyright by Howard Morehead;pages 123,145,149,175,courtesy Time-Life,copyright by Martha Swope;pages 126,129,183 courtesy and copyright by Rosemary Winckley;pages 139,207courtesy ofthe Dance Collection,New York Public Library;page 158courtesy and copyright by Judy Cameron;pages 165,167,194,215,224courtesy and copyright by Johan Elbers;page 186 courtesy and copyright by Fred Fehl;page 210courtesy and copyright by Jack Vartoogian;page 237courtesy and copyright by JosefAstor.All other photographs author’s collection and courtesy ofAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater archives. Lyrics:“He Ain’t Heavy,”copyright 1969,renewed 1997,Harrison Music Corp.and Jenny Music,all rights reserved,used by permission;“A Song For You,”copyright 1970,Irving Music,Inc.,all rights reserved,used by permission. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page v To Alvin Ailey, who speaks to us all, still. This page intentionally left blank DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page vii A friend asked me ifI liked Ailey’s work;I blanched at the question.I could not have spent years thinking through Ailey’s achievement,hunkered over newspa- per clippings and programs in an airless room at the Alvin Ailey Dance Foun- dation offices,viewing this work repeatedly on videotape and,thankfully,in live performances, without an enormous admiration and respect for his accom- plishment.This study is a testament to that respect. This study also provides a stabilizing narrative ofAiley’s creative work,one that places him at the center ofa consideration ofconcert dance practice in the United States.Since he showed his first choreography in the 1950s,professional dance critics have consistently found fault with Ailey’s process and product.My project does not involve rehearsing the “problems”in Ailey’s work as a chore- ographer,nor am I looking for chinks in the armor ofa widely celebrated Afri- can American cultural institution. Rather, following art historian Richard J. Powell’s summation,I hope to provide an interpretation ofAiley’s work that ac- knowledges its particular aesthetics and cultural processes in formation “from an a prioriposition ofcultural wholeness,conscious historicity,and an inherent and unapologetic humanity.”1This study follows a lead set by Ailey himselfin its variety ofapproaches and propositions about the place ofconcert dance in contemporary African American life. Above all,Ailey was aware ofhis position and potential as an African Amer- ican man born in working-class,segregated,Depression-era Texas.To under- P stand Ailey’s achievement,we must look to the world he inherited and the de- R grees to which he transformed that world through his work.I do not compare E Ailey’s work to that of Martha Graham, George Balanchine, or Merce Cun- F A ningham as ifAiley,like them,had been born into an educated,middle-class C white milieu.IfAiley made dances that were important to him,we must be will- E ing to look to the particular cultural processes and social realities that inspired him.Ailey’s dances may speak toa wide,global audience,but they speak froman African American ethos that remains insubstantially documented. Ailey choreographed more than seventy-five works,most ofwhich exist in the repertories ofone or more dance companies or have been videotaped and archived at the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.I consider underly- ing compositional structures in relation to the overall dance event.To better un- derstand the role ofinteraction between Ailey and his dancers,I have paid close attention to published interviews,oral histories,and televised accounts given by dancers who have both worked with Ailey and danced his choreographies.In ad- dition,I conducted several interviews with former Ailey company dancers. The study is organized according to the parallel development of Ailey’s choreographic themes and his company.Theoretical concerns are developed in reference to particular dance works or performances.Ofspecial significance to this study are modifications Ailey effected to his own choreography.For exam- ple, Revelations, his signature work, has endured three distinct guises in its nearly forty-year history. An analysis of changes in its appearance points to changes in Ailey’s conception of his company and its purpose as a bearer of African American culture. DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page viii Preface I take the time to describe several ofAiley’s works so that the reader might sense what I see as I appreciate these compositions.The limits ofmovement de- scription may become readily apparent,but I find this technique useful,espe- cially to discussions ofwork long gone or not easily accessible to a general au- dience.The descriptions also intend to give the impression ofhow these dances “feel”to a dance researcher at the beginning ofthe twenty-first century. I rely on critical accounts contemporary to the premieres ofAiley’s chore- ography for at least two reasons:to provide the reader with a sense ofwhat writ- ers present at performances chose to document oftheir immediate opinions of Ailey’s work,and to offer a sense ofthe strangely consistent degradation Ailey suffered at the pens ofsome ofthose critics.This study does not concern itself primarily with the divide between the largely white New York dance critics co- hort and Ailey’s largely African American company and aesthetic interest.But that divide surely did exist,and according to Ailey’s allies,the virulent attacks writers routinely launched against his enterprise troubled him deeply.Certainly, negative critical opinions of Ailey’s choreography or company are not inten- tionally racist simply because they come from white writers;at times,negative opinions from any quarter are helpful to the process ofimproving performance. But,as the several examples ofnegative criticism in the manuscript that follow bear out,many ofAiley’s (white) critics engaged a purposefully dismissive and derisive tone that deserves more explication than this text allows. In addition to historical analysis,the manuscript includes a series ofshort, self-contained essays that constitute a counternarrative to the main body of writing.I intend for these breaks to resonate with black musical practice,in which an insistent beat is interrupted by a flash ofcontradictory rhythmic ideas. For me,the break is the most significant gesture ofAfrican American perfor- mance,as it contains both the tie to a ubiquitous rhythmic flow and the poten- tial for complete anarchy and disruption.The break creates a liminoid space that allows listeners a place to enter the musical dance.I hope that the manuscript’s literary breaks will function similarly to periodically revive the interests ofread- ers who become bored with the cataloguing ofAiley’s life work. This manuscript veers toward academic language at times,but attempts to resist staying there for long.Following Ailey’s lead,my effort questions the na- ture ofthe political and aesthetic in dance performance,but in language that might be widely understood.My hope is that this manuscript might reach any- one who has enjoyed a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and inspire that reader to think more deeply about the ways that performance has grown from a rich and fertile African American ground. viii DeFrantz.00 FM 10/20/03 2:50 PM Page ix This manuscript has benefited from numerable influences,direct and indirect. I thank everyone who offered encouragement and criticism along the way. I thank the faculty ofthe Department ofPerformance Studies at New York Uni- versity,especially Professor James N.Amankulor,who constantly reminded me to write within the African American grain and to honor all the deities—plus one more.Marcia B.Siegel shared ofherselfagain and again to push me toward thinking critically and carefully about dance and its affect.Simply put,she is without peer as a critic and mentor. The dissertation that gave rise to this book was funded by a Ford Founda- tion Fellowship for Dissertation Writing.Additional support to revise the man- uscript came from a Provost’s Junior Faculty leave and an Old Dominion leave from the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology.This project was also supported by an unspeakably opulent residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center;thanks to Gianna Celli and her stafffor their su- perb efforts.I also thank my fellow residents from the summer of1999,whose ideas added much to the structure ofthe present volume,including Neelan and Sithi Tiruchelvam, Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Sissela Bok, and especially A Nancy Hicks Maynard.Many thanks to James Gibson for referring me to the C Rockefeller Study Center in the first place. K I thank everyone at the Ailey organization who helped this project along N over the years, including the many students and guest faculty in the various O dance history courses I’ve taught there.I especially thank Denise Jefferson,who W first unlocked the door to the Ailey archive for me and ignited a passion that led L to this book;Sylvia Waters,who shared stories and supportive energy at every E juncture;and several individuals in the Ailey Press and Public Relations Office, D G including Molly Browning,Donna Wood Sanders,Cynthia Martin,and Jodi M Krizer and their many unflappable associates:Vanessa Jordan,Minda Logan, Delva Haynes,Rubeny Hoyne,Lynette Rizzo,Sergey Gordeev,and Tara Wasser- E N man. Thanks also to Anna Marie Forsythe, James Paulson, Karen Arceneau, T Sathi Pillai,Stephen Brown,Samuel Coleman,and Amadea Edwards.And,of S course,many,many thanks to Sharon Luckman,executive director of Dance Theater Foundation,Inc.,and to Judith Jamison,artistic director ofthe Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater,for their support ofthis project. Among American dance history and theory scholars,I thank my colleagues Constance Valis Hill,Susan Manning,Gay Morris,David Gere,Robert Tracy, Anne Cooper Albright,Ananya Chatterjea,Anna Scott,and especially Richard C.Green III,John O.Perpener III,and Veta Goler for their responses and prod- ding.Brenda Dixon Gottschild is a divine inspiration in person and in her writ- ing;thank you for taking an interest in this work.C.S’thembile West graciously read portions ofthis manuscript in its earliest form and commented with clar- ity and enthusiasm that is very much appreciated.Richard Long,Beth Genne, and Lynn Garafola each allowed me to present sections ofthis manuscript in public lectures;I thank them as well as the staffand students at Emory Univer- sity,the University ofMichigan,and Barnard College for those opportunities. Several librarians and archives contributed time and effort to answer my

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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
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