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ALVIN AILEY
(1931
- 1989)
Dance Choreographer
Ailey achieved great success as a dancer and choreographer, and his Alvin Ailey
Dance Theater generated much interest in African-American musical traditions.
His active sexual appetites led to an AIDS-related early death.
Ailey’s comments regarding the persons on the stamps above, from his autobiography, Revelations:
Martha Graham used black dancers in marvelously creative ways, but aside from that, the New York City concert dance scene was basically closed to black dancers.
Agnes de Mille … When she was holding auditions for a Texas musical … she told the black dancers who came to the audition that they were historically inappropriate and refused to hire them. … and I’ll never forgive her for it.
I like dancers who are temperamental … show their feelings, personalities, not hidden. I like personalities, not cookie–cutter dancers – a row of this – a row of that. That’s what I accuse Balanchine of: making everyone who dances for him blank–faced.
Copyright Louis Paul Hennefeld 1983
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