Edges of Ailey | Art & Artists

Sept 25, 2024–Feb 9, 2025

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Edges of Ailey includes selections of ephemera and moving images from a sweeping range of sources across dance, theater, music, and literature from which Alvin Ailey drew inspiration. Luminaries of modern dance such as Carmen de Lavallade, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham, Geoffrey Holder, Lester Horton, Pearl Primus, and Ted Shawn served as his mentors, collaborators, and examples. The dazzling scenes of Broadway, Hollywood, and theater—especially his acting teacher Stella Adler and the choreography of Jack Cole—informed his distinct sense of theatricality and the glint of entertainment in his dances. Additionally, an eclectic combination of literature, poetry, and music, from James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Albert Murray, to Hart Crane, Carson McCullers, Henry Miller, and Tennessee Williams, to Alice Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Donny Hathaway, and Laura Nyro, offered him a creative continuum to absorb and build upon.

The cover of a printed program for Katherine Dunham's Tropical Revue performance. A black and white photograph of two dancers, a woman and a man, adorned with flowers in the hair, collaged against a blue trapezoid.

A photograph of a young Alvin Ailey surrounded by colors and textures, looking upwards.

Dancer with legs crossed against multicolor curtain.

Edges of Ailey | Art & Artists

Edges of Ailey | Art & Artists

Ailey’s Influences

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