Much as the documentary Ailey delights and inspires, it also evokes a sense of wistfulness by privileging the choreographer’s public persona at the expense of Alvin the man.
Alvin Ailey
Posted inArt
10,000 Photos Document Alvin Ailey’s Groundbreaking Dances
The collection of wonderful photographs, now online, chronicles the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1961 to 1994.
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Romance, Dance, Drag, and Day-After Performance Art for New Year’s 2018
From a high-caliber drag show to a daylong performance art marathon on the subway, there’s a lot to do in New York City around the New Year.
Posted inPerformance
On Black Dance: Shifting Movement, Words, Identities
I am watching a black man gyrate in front of me in a thong over gray briefs. A tuft of synthetic, orange hair peeks out from the front of the triangular fabric. His nearly-shaven head glistens as beads of sweat trickle down his face. His dark eyes stare intensely at us.
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With Founder Gone, What’s the Future of Merce Cunningham’s Studio?
A small group of dance students recently gathered on the floor of the Cunningham Studio to try to save their dance program from an early death. “There’s no way the studio won’t make it,” Suzanne Thomas, a French student, said. She is passionate about preserving it for a reason: “Pure Cunningham doesn’t really exist anywhere else.” The community revolving around choreographer Merce Cunningham, a giant of modern dance, has been in a state of flux since his passing in 2009. Although the choreographer himself and the Cunningham Trust meticulously outlined a plan for both the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which would come to an end after a final farewell tour, and the Cunningham Foundation for after Cunningham was gone, the fate of the Cunningham Studio’s educational program was not so clear cut.
