Generations of Embodied Knowledge: AILEY's Dance Artists, 1958–2023 (Radical Accounting series)

This video, shown as part of the Edges of Ailey exhibition, is called Generations of Embodied Knowledge: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Dance Artists, 1958–2023 (2024), from the Radical Accounting series, by Kate Elswit and Harmony Bench (Moving Data), with Antonio Jiménez-Mavillard and Tia-Monique Uzor. Radical Accounting represents the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's data as a framework for historical imagination. The animations transform archival materials to visualize the reach of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). They show how the AAADT grew from a small touring company to a global phenomenon, charting the impact of Ailey not only as a choreographer but also as someone who shared a living history of dance with audiences around the world. In doing so, the series traces embodied knowledge across generations of dancers. For nearly three years, researchers Harmony Bench and Kate Elswit composed the datasets underlying these models for more than thirty-thousand documents located in archives across the United States. Materials ranged from programs and tour itineraries to performer diaries and other personal materials, as well as data previously compiled by the AAADT. Drawing movement from static records, the process of intentional data curation and visualization works to construct a new framework for historical imagination. This brings each dancer, performance venue, and choreography into view, foregrounding how dance histories are collective and independent.