Essays on Ailey

Introduction

Katherine Dunham is a legendary dancer and choreographer whose contributions to the dance culture are admirable and great. She is an important figure to the dance culture because of her revolutionary and transformative choreography in the 1930’s. She revolutionized dance styles in America by investigating and establishing the roots of African and Caribbean dance and rituals and transforming them into critical creative choreography that resonates with all. She also pioneered the use of ethnic and folk choreography by introducing it to mainstream dance styles and fusing them. Katherine further founded the anthropological dance movement; showing the whole world ...

Modern Trends in Dance

It is quite difficult to characterize by few words such an artistically expressive phenomenon as dance. However, it is possible to depict several novice trends relevant for the dance today. Nowadays, modern dance is infused with the interpretive messages, where the performers are trying to incorporate a specific concept. The idea behind a specific performance may encapsulate a social, emotional, or artistic message that will be relevant for the contemporary viewers. For instance, the performance created by Alvin Ailey Dance Theater “Revelations” managed to explore the African-American history and incorporate a vivid expressive message into dance, which is still ...

Modern theater – is a very complex and multifaceted phenomenon. A variety of theaters can now meet the needs of virtually any intellectual and social strata of society. Such theatrical genre as musical combines the “high” and “low” culture, reflected the public sentiment shades of different social strata, combined many elements of modern theater, and at the same time updated the classics, making it popular in a wide viewers environment. This is just one of the processes of attracting the unprepared viewer to theater arts. Important role in this also is played by the media. Following the ideology of postmodernism ...

Movie Review: “A tribute to Alvin Ailey with the American Theatre”

Alvin Ailey lived between 1931 and 1989 and in the 58 year, he lived left a legacy in the dance theatre industry. Ailey had a passion in theatre and dancing which led him to pursue choreography as a profession. His passions led him to establish the American Dance Theatre, which he named after himself. Today dancers pay patronage to Ailey`s activism in revolutionizing and popularizing modern African-American dance. Other dancers refer to Ailey as the cultural ambassador from America (DeFrantz, 2004). Apart from dancing, Ailey also served as an activist for the participation of African Americans in the dance concerts that ...