Last night, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company performed at City Center, the same place that we saw Fall for Dance. The company was founded in 1958 by Alvin Ailey, and is currently one of the most popular dance companies internationally. However, the nature of the company has drastically changed in the last 58 years. If you look at footage of their earlier performances, you might describe it as “rough hewn – and powerful,” whereas now they are “sleek, athletic masters of the universe.” The dancers are so beloved by audiences that they are known for their ability to excite the crowd to the point of applause in the middle of movements. Although I would usually think of their popularity with international audiences to be a very positive attribute, but in class we have been discussing the exact opposite. Does their widespread popularity mean that the Ailey Company has become too McDonald’s-like? Is the company only appreciated by such a vast audience because it lacks the aesthetic integrity that only smaller snob-filled audiences can recognize?
The picture shown at the top of the post depicts the company performing “Prodigal Prince” at City Center. “Prodigal Prince” was originally created in 1968 by Geoffrey Holder, and portrays the life of Hector Hyppolite, a Haitian painter who also happened to be a Voodoo priest. The piece begins with Hyppolite’s vision, in which the goddess Ezrulie and St. John the Baptist tell him that he will become a famous painter in the future. Ezrulie is dressed in a long turquoise robe and headdress and St. John is wearing a bright green tunic (in the image above) that creates a visual explosion of color. As a result, “the hallucinatory, out-of-body experience, the sonorous drumming, the vivid colors and dreamlike actions that Mr. Holder conjures make for a compelling spectacle that isn’t the usual one seen on Ailey stages today.”
I’d like to hear your answers to the rhetorical questions you raise. I would also recommend that you make a judgment based on seeing the dance company, not just reading about it. this is a group that raises very interesting questions.