Discuss the Influences Which Affected the Development of the Movement Style of a Practitioner from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

Influenced primarily by cultural roots and incredibly opportunity, Dunham had the luxury of studying in the West Indies as well as anthropological study of other cultural style dances. The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham’s life and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. And, importantly for the development of modern dance, her fieldwork began her investigations into a vocabulary of movement that would form the core of the Katherine Dunham Technique. Though many of Dunham’s primary influences lies within her multicultural experiences, Mark Turbyfill also seemed to play a large role in her future dance career, giving her private lessons despite his doubt in the opening of her student company (Kaiso! 187). Katherine Dunham has been list as an influence to “everyone from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse and Twyla Tharp. American dance, including ballet, modern dance, Hollywood and Broadway, would not be the same without her” (Aschenbrenner 226).

In terms of actions and dynamics for this piece, Bruce has used a few elegant balletic movements, such as arabesque and attitude, to show control and strength of what dominance

Alvin Ailey was an accomplished dancer and choreographer whose African-American heritage influenced his works in the 20th century. His successful dance career has gained international recognition and acclaim thus rendering a significant legacy. Ailey’s background as a dancer and choreographer had many strong influences from social, cultural, economic and political aspects during his early life. His African-American heritage has greatly influenced his works. Alvin was the founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (1958-), galvanized and stabilized an African American presence in theatrical dance. An outstanding performer, choreographer, company director, and mentor to scores of dance artists, Ailey oversaw the growth of his small, pick-up group of seven dancers into a large, carefully managed, internationally-renowned enterprise including several ensembles of dancers and a thriving school in New York City housed in the largest building devoted to dance in the United States. Along the way, Ailey changed the landscape of modern dance by developing new audiences for its performance through a consistent combination of exceptional artistry and wellcoordinated community outreach programs. In all, Ailey invigorated the art of dance with his distinctive creative imagination, his “blood memories” of cultural formations he witnessed as a child-- including the jook joint and the black church --and the strong survivalist ethic he learned as an African American man born in the

Ailey was inspired by Martha Graham when learning to dance. He used to visit the Martha Graham studios and there studied Ballet and Drama classes. Graham’s dance techniques were expressive and included contractions and angular, parallel movements. A dance in which Ailey uses this style could be the first section of ‘Cry’. Throughout, we see the expressive emotion shown through this dancer. We see the use of contractions, arched movements and curves. Soon after the dancer throws the fabric cloth to either side, near the beginning, she side stretches over to the opposite horizontal showing a curve in her torso. She also curves her back slowly up contracting from her stomach. Throughout ‘Cry’, we see many contractions mainly all linking to the stomach. Angular and parallel movements can be seen where the dancer balances on her left leg and lifts up her right leg giving off a right angled shape. (Arabesque Line). This movement is also common in many of Ailey’s other dances including ‘Flowers’ and can be seen in some dances from ‘Revelations’.

“Wade in the Water” is an excerpt from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. His masterpiece Revelations was created in1960 and it reflects his experience and memories of growing up in Texas. “Wade in the Water” is a dance within Revelations that shows us a traditional baptism ceremony that takes place in a river. Alvin Ailey’s “Wade in the Water” shows us the hope that blacks had of someday being free. The baptism signifies the faith and hope of blacks being free from slavery and beginning a new life with freedom. For example, in (1:23-1:40) we see three male dancers with what look like tree branches “cleansing” the air from evil spirits before the baptism takes place. In (1:16-1:23) we see seven dancer taking two steps forward and two steps back with their hands together, like they were praying, and two other dancers with their hands up, as if they were asking god for help.

Although Bausch’s dances show influences of both the German expressionist tradition and and the formalism of American dance of the sixties, she effectively disempowered both systems. In Bausch’s work, formal gestures become subjective as they accumulate the performers’ personal interpretations and new meanings with each

She breaks all the images of American standard of beauty such as being physically pretty. She

One’s childhood has a lasting impact on their entire life. Moore’s upbringing and the loving family he was born into, no matter how trivial it may seem, greatly contributed to his success. Wes seemingly grew up the same as any other kid in the Bronx – in a single-parent household, surrounded by bad influences… what separated him from the crowd? His support system: his family, and their ultimate support and sacrifices made all the difference. As a teenager, Wes seemed to be going down the wrong path. He constantly skipped school, his academic failures were overwhelming, and he was even arrested for vandalism. In the case of the other Wes, his family simply let these actions slide, and decision after decision ultimately landed him with a life sentence in prison. The author Wes’s mother, however, refused to allow this behavior to continue. As a method of intervention, she forced Moore to attend Valley Forge, and in doing so, probably saved his career. The extent of his family’s sacrifice was evident on page 95 when Wes realized that “my grandparents took the money they had in the home in the Bronx, decades of savings and mortgage payments, and gave it to my mother

Graeme Murphy, past artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company is known to be Australia’s greatest and most productive choreographer, of all time. Through the 30 years of being artistic director, Murphy has created outstanding pieces and inspired

King’s work with the Shaolin Monks “is renowned for its ability to connect audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity—of vulnerability and tenderness, but also of furious abandon and exhilarating freedom—and for its unique capacity to imbue classical ballet with new expressive potential” (Linesballet.org). King has already made an impact on the world of dance that will surely expand a great deal more in his career, and will undoubtedly continue beyond his lifetime.

As a child, Lester Hortons was very interested in Native American culture. He spent his adolescent years studying Indian folktale, visiting Indian burial mounds, and writing about his interests in the culture (Perces 4). Horton’s fascination with dance stemmed back to the viewing of his first performance by The Denishawn Dancers (Perces 4). Modern dancers, Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Dennis included Indian, Siamese, Japanese, Javanaes, and Egyptian dance styles in the performance. This medley of cultural dance styles heightened Horton’s interest in dance an died to his study of ballet, Greek dance, and modern dance (Peres 4). Horton began his training in ballet and Greek dance, but became dissatisfied with ballet. After suspending his ballet training, Horton

This week's reading's, lectures, along with the live dance session has helped further the little prior knowledge I had on the details and components that are necessary to create a dance performance. In particular, DeFrantz does a great job listing the aspects behind Alvin Ailey's dance performances. The foundation of these performances was predetermined in Ailey's notebook of thematic sketches, descriptions of each individual character, sketches of desired settings and costumes, along with an outline of the counts to the music (DeFrantz 2). Together all of these details help make a dance that reflects a story or message or that allows the audience to formulate their own interpretation based on what they saw. Besides the actual choreography/

Through her cultural influence on dance, as well as her impact on reinventing dance itself, Anna Sokolow has gone down in history as one of the great modern dancers. Her Jewish roots were a huge basis for the dances she would perform and the messages that she would try to get across, which is significant to me and my own similar religious views. It was important for dancers and choreographers to speak up for what they believe in and disseminate their message throughout the world of the arts, and Sokolow was one of those who did this with great success. Through her unique style of movement, her eye-opening piece Rooms, and her own personal connection to Judaism, Anna Sokolow’s inspirations and works come together to address a powerful issue

Although it was difficult at times to observe each moment due to the location of our seating, I still saw a little bit of Nicholson’s solo in right corner of the stage. She suspended her legs and toes, with a slow and strong articulation of the feet, and dramatically fell to the ground. Similarly, Cooch suspended her arms forward towards the audience, while doing a demi plié and diminutively curving her spine, and gave a merciful gaze as if she was asking for help. Additionally, one of the male dancers in the vest suspended his right arm forward, fell forward towards downstage and catches himself. In addition to the suspension and the fall movements, the sharp and the angular movements were also prevalent in this piece. Throughout specific parts of the piece, while one dancer danced his or her solo, the others would move and walk downstage and then upstage very angularly in unison, with their feet flexed; almost as if they were robots. I interpreted this as if they were living machines that were the products of the consumer and materialistic culture in the

As a child, I always dreamed of becoming a dancer. I wanted to wear the cute little pink tutu’s and have my hair done into the most perfect bun that would sit on the top of my head. But being raised with a limited source of income made things very difficult. I was never able to join a dance studio, instead I would sit in front of the TV watching Angelina Ballerina, dreaming of what I could be.