One of Ailey's objectives with creating his American Dance Theater was to show the world what it meant to be Black, through dance. His dances don't seem to cover or translate to current events much as satire or as critique. This does not mean that Ailey would not have come up with some sort of critique of current events. Just two years after his passing, Rodney King, a taxi driver in Los Angeles, was ruthlessly beaten by a group of police officers after a high-speed car chase. Four of them were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive force. All four of them were acquitted, which likely sparked the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, in which 53 people were killed.
Would Ailey have possibly commented on that incident with dance? It would be interesting to see how he would interpret the supposed racism of the court system and the seemingly unfair advantages police have over civilians only because they are policemen.
A good 20 plus years after the King trial, police brutality has come back into the national spotlight, with incidents like Ferguson, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin causing ruckus all over the nation. And now with the sentencing of an Oklahoma policeman to 18 counts of felonies including 4 of rape and 4 of forced oral sodomy, would Ailey comment on that? Would he again try to give rise to the need to monitor police officers more harshly for their actions? Would he still give a voice to let the nation know of the disadvantages Black men and women face in life and in the courts? Would he dare comment on how finally now it seems that something is being done about this inherent racism in this country?Who knows? Wouldn't it be cool to find out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb1WywIpUtY
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/us/oklahoma-daniel-holtzclaw-verdict/
I was shocked to see the first photo the author provided. Even though we do not want to accept that modern dance is a white European's thing at the very beginning. As the most influenced black modern dancer, Ailey started his American Dance Theatre to present the world what is meant to black via dancing. I think dance is not only an art format, it also holds the power to present the voice from people.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to speculate on this. I would like to think that Ailey would stand up for African Americans being black himself, but he didn't stand up for gay people even though he was gay. These are very different though because he didn't want to identify as gay and kept it a secret whereas showed black culture and the culture he grew up with. I would hope that he would have something to say about all the injustice that is afflicted unto African Americans regularly.
ReplyDeleteThis is an intriguing approach of looking at Alvin Ailey. Anyone can learn what he spoke up for in the past, but considering how different events would effect him is quite interesting. The beautiful thing about dance is that the choreographer does not have to be obvious to prove a point. People base what they see in a piece based on what is relevant to their life at the time. I think that him simply creating pieces could send strong messages to people.
ReplyDeleteThoughtful topical insights. Thinking about Ailey responding to today is quite wrenching.
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