Edges of Ailey | Art & Artists

Sept 25, 2024–Feb 9, 2025

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Alvin Ailey saw collaboration as a key to creative potential. He once remarked: “I love the idea of people coming and working together . . . start with an empty space, and a body or two, and we say, ‘Carve this space.’” This understanding guided his way of working, namely through the repertory model that he pioneered. Ailey was the first modern dance choreographer whose company did not perform his works exclusively. Aspiring to create a “living repository [of] classics and curiosities,” he actively brought in existing and newly commissioned works by other choreographers alongside his own dances. This platform proved to be a lifeline for Black dancers and choreographers, inspired in large part by Ailey’s own experiences as an emerging Black artist in New York, where he and his fellow Black dancers were met with segregation and scant opportunities.

Ailey’s collaborations did not only fall within dance’s purview. He was actively involved with writers, musicians, and artists, including Maya Angelou, Romare Bearden, Duke Ellington, Geoffrey Holder, and Langston Hughes, among others, whose ideas echoed and amplified Ailey’s own interests. Ailey enlisted them to dance and choreograph, as well as to create set designs, musical scores, and costumes. Various art spaces and nightlife scenes were equally fruitful sites of exchange, from the Nuyorican Poets Café on the Lower East Side, which Ailey frequented, to the famed club Studio 54, where Ailey II dancers performed for its opening night.

Three dancers in colorful athletic wear and headbands perform on a dimly lit stage, with one dancer prominently in the foreground.

A crowded room with people watching a performance, bathed in pink and purple lighting, creating a blurred, dynamic effect.

Dancers in colorful costumes perform on a dimly lit stage, with one dancer in red and others in various outfits, some holding capes.

Group of people in colorful 80s workout attire, including headbands, leg warmers, and sneakers, dancing or exercising in a dimly lit room.

Dancers in colorful costumes perform on stage with a pyramid backdrop, while an audience watches from the sides.

Dancers in colorful costumes perform energetically on a wooden floor, surrounded by a large audience in a dimly lit venue.

A collage featuring colorful sketches of men in athletic wear, vintage photos of people dancing, and a man in white briefs lounging on a chair.

Sketch of two figures in green and white athletic outfits with red and black accents. Includes measurements and notes on graph paper.

Fashion sketch of a person in a white top with red and blue accents, blue pants with red and yellow stripes, and a red sash. Background includes additional sketches.

Man in a white headband and yellow tank top poses with a towel draped over his shoulder against a colorful, graffiti-style background.

Person wearing a red headband and a white and blue shirt, posing with their chin resting on their hand against a graffiti-covered wall.

Person wearing a white headband, white top, and yellow pants, standing with arms crossed in front of a colorful, abstract background.

Young man in a white headband and colorful shirt poses in front of a graffiti-covered wall, wearing yellow shorts and a red waistband.

Edges of Ailey | Art & Artists

Edges of Ailey | Art & Artists

Ailey’s Collaborators

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