Edges of Ailey

Sept 25, 2024–Feb 9, 2025

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Alvin Ailey envisioned his dances as an embodiment of the fortitude of Black art and culture when he proclaimed: “Look how beautiful we are, look how wonderful we are as Black people. Look what’s happened to us in all these years despite our problems, despite our being brought here as slaves, look what has grown in us.” As a gay Black man, Ailey’s presence in the dance field and his choreography tested the very notion of freedom. The question of who could be free in times of lynchings, apartheid, homophobia, and the height of the AIDS crisis was paramount during his lifetime, as were the corresponding acts of collective resilience, including the civil rights and Black power movements and gay liberation advances.

Ailey’s dances channeled that momentum in a range of ways. His writings demonstrate a deep exploration of queerness in the texts he read, in the sources for his dances, and in his personal reflections. He sought to make Black dance, in his words, “universal” by having a multiracial dance company beginning in 1962. He espoused the model of a “total dancer,” trained to be well-versed in various techniques from jazz to ballet to modern, as a means of transcending disciplinary limits. He also insisted upon creative experimentation, never confining himself to one narrative, style, or aesthetic—from his abstract plotless dances to his politically informed works Masekela Langage (1969) and Survivors (1986). He established a dance school in 1969 and used his company as a vehicle to support the advancement of Black choreographers, providing resources for the creation and presentation of new dances. Ailey maintained an equal presence at public schools, community centers, and historically Black colleges and universities as he did on performing arts stages and in international venues.

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Edges of Ailey

Black Liberation

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Sam Gilliam, Untitled (Black), 1978

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