Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates 50 years of performing 'Revelations'

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; dir. Judith Jamison (City Center. 2001)
Originally uploaded by Performing Arts / Artes Escénicas

Writes the NY Times, "Members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform “Revelations” nearly as often as ordinary people brush their teeth. This magnificent work, created by Alvin Ailey in 1960, is a dance on land and in water, a journey through African-American spiritual music and, for dancers, an act of reverence for the generations that came before.

“It doesn’t matter how tired I am,” said Briana Reed, a company member since 1998. “As soon as the music starts, I feel myself transported to another place.”

Ailey’s burning exploration of grief and joy celebrates its 50th anniversary on Wednesday at City Center. As part of the season-long commemoration, the troupe’s artistic director, Judith Jamison, will conduct performances on Friday and Saturday nights. “It’s like a port de bras for me,” she said. “It’s just so easy to breathe with that music.”

Dictators and monarchs and the fine arts

Rigaud, Hyacinthe (1659-1743) - 1701 Louis XIV of France (Louvre, Paris)
Originally uploaded by RasMarley

Dictators and Monarchs in the Arts / Fine Arts review / Trudeau
Please write the Word of the answer.

1. European city, location of the notably naughty Kit Kat Club. ____
2. Approximate era of the story of Cabaret: a) 1890's b) 1930's c)
1940's d) 1960's.
3. Cabaret takes place in the realm of "big-city poverty, drug and
alcohol escapism, criminals, sleazebags, fighting in the streets,
venereal disease, the prostitution of both sexes" and so on. The
French phrase for this non-bourgeois territory translates literally as
"half the world." It is the __ __.
4. "Bourgeois" refers to the values and social place of the a) upper
working class b) upper middle class c) wealthy class.
5. A cabaret is, more or less, a ____.
6. When a person is declining into a state of degeneracy or into the
state of losing their morals we say they are d___ .
7. In 1930's Germany a party called the Nationalist Socialist German
Worker's Party developed in the region around Munich. It was
popularly known as the __ party.
8. Art approved by the government during the Third Reich:
a) modern, abstract, stimulating b) traditional, realistic,
inspirational c) both the above.
9. Attitude toward art by the Third Reich: a) very important b) to be avoided
c) neutral.
10. The residence of Louis XIV and the preceding French kings in
Paris: the Palais du __.
11. The violent rebellion of the impoverished class in la France, the
French Revolution: a) 1689 b) 1718 c) 1776 d) 1789.
12. Southern European nation from which England, Germany and France
derive much of their influence in cuisine, entertainment, government
and art: __ .
13. Vaux le Vicomte: a splendid example of a 17 thcentury French __ .
14. Noblemen won favor with the king in court life at Versailles by
increasing their skill at __ .
15. As a teen, Louis XIV performed as a gilded Apollo in a famous
opera. He thereby acquired the nickname _ __ __, or,in English, _ _ __
.
16. The Greek words khorea,"to dance" and graphein, "to write," are
synthesized in the modern word __ .
17. The river that connects Paris with the North Sea - and the
Atlantic: a) Seine
b) Rhine c) Danube.
18.France is bordered by Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and a) Belgium
b) Netherlands c) Denmark.
19. Name the ancient Chinese-HIndu symbol for Good fortune that was
used by a short-lived European military regime in the late 20th
century: the __ .
20.The German word for Germany: __land.
21. This dancer was born in rural Texas and schooled in Los Angeles.
His creativity, however, flowered in NYC. He was __ __ .

Congrats to Lev Hudson, top scorer on this quiz.

Terminology in ballet is primarily from French

Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Dance terms in ballet and modern are mostly derived from French, owing to the influence of Louis XIV.

Arabesque [a-ra-BESK] One of the basic poses in ballet, arabesque takes its name from a form of Moorish ornament. In ballet it is a position of the body, in profile, supported on one leg, which can be straight or demi-plié, with the other leg extended behind and at right angles to it, and the arms held in various harmonious positions creating the longest possible line from the fingertips to the toes.

Derrière [deh-RYEHR] Behind, back. This term may refer to a movement, step or placing of a limb in back of the body. In reference to a particular step, the addition of derrière implies that the working foot is closed at the back.

Jeté, grand [grahn zhuh-TAV] Large jeté. In this step the legs are thrown to 90 degrees with a corresponding high jump. It is done forward to attitude croisée or effacée, and to all the arabesques. It may also be done backward with the leg raised either croisé or effacé devant. Grand jeté is always preceded by a preliminary movement such as a glissade.

Pirouette [peer-WET] Whirl or spin. A complete turn of the body on one foot, on point or demi-pointe.

Plié [plee-AY] Bent, bending. A bending of the knee or knees.

Sauté, sautée [soh-TAY] Jumped, jumping.

Alvin Ailey, Choreographer and Extraordinary American

Alvin Ailey, Choreographer
Originally uploaded by Ben Heine

Alvin Ailey, American modern dancer and choreographer, was born in Rogers, Texas in 1931 and moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of twelve. There, on a junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he fell in love with concert dance.

Inspired by performances of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and classes with Lester Horton, Mr Ailey began his formal dance training. It was with Mr. Horton, the founder of the first racially integrated dance company in this country, that Mr. Ailey embarked on his professional dance career.

After Horton's death in 1953, Mr. Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In 1954, he and his friend Carmen de Lavallade were invited to New York to dance in the Broadway show, House of Flowers, by Truman Capote.

In New York, Mr. Ailey studied with many outstanding dance artists, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and took acting classes with Stella Adler. The versatile Ailey won a number of acting roles, continued to choreograph and performed as a dancer.

In 1958, Mr. Ailey founded his own company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Mr. Ailey had a vision of creating a company dedicated to the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance heritage and the uniqueness of black cultural expression. In 1960 he choreographed Revelations, the classic masterpiece of American modern dance based on the religious heritage of his youth.

Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Ailey created some 79 ballets, many of which have appeared in the repertoire of major dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala Ballet.

Mr. Ailey died of complications due to AIDS on December 1, 1989. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote, "You didn't need to have known Ailey personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm and exuberance and his courageous stand for multiracial brotherhood."

Patron of the Arts in the 1600's: Louis XIV

Patron of the Arts in the 1600's: Louis XIV
Originally uploaded by trudeau

The Sun King generously financed the royal court, notes Wikipedia, and supported those who worked under him.

He brought the Académie Française under his patronage, and became its "Protector". He allowed Classical French literature to flourish by protecting such writers as Molière, Racine and La Fontaine, whose works remain greatly influential to this day.

Louis also patronised the visual arts by funding and commissioning various artists, such as Charles Le Brun, Pierre Mignard, Antoine Coysevox and Hyacinthe Rigaud whose works became famous throughout Europe. In music, composers and musicians, Lully, Chambonnières and François Couperin thrived and influenced many others.

Through four main building campaigns, Louis converted a hunting lodge built by Louis XIII into the spectacular Palace of Versailles. Louis officially moved the royal court to Versailles on 6 May 1682.

Versailles became a dazzling, awe-inspiring setting for state affairs and the reception of foreign dignitaries. At Versailles, the King alone assumed the attention, which was not shared with the Capital or People.

Several reasons have been suggested for the creation of the extravagant and stately palace, as well as the relocation of the monarchy's seat. For example, Saint-Simon speculated that Louis viewed Versailles as an isolated power center where treasonous cabals could be more readily discovered and foiled.[10] Alternatively, the civil war, le Fronde, caused Louis to allegedly hate Paris, which he abandoned for a country retreat.

However, his many improvements, embellishments and developments of Paris, such as the establishment of a police and street-lighting[11], lend little credence to this theory. As further examples of his continued care for the Capital, Louis constructed the "Hôtel des Invalides"—a military complex and home to this day for officers and soldiers rendered infirm either by injury or age. While pharmacology was still quite rudimentary, les Invalides pioneered new treatments and set new standards for hospice treatment. The conclusion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668 also induced Louis to demolish the northern walls of Paris in 1670 and replace them with wide tree-lined boulevards.[12]

Moreover, Louis also renovated and improved the Louvre and many other royal residences.

Louis XIV, the Château de Vaux le Vicomte, Versailles and the ballet

Château de Vaux le Vicomte - 01-09-2006 - 14h00
Originally uploaded by Panoramas

When Louis XIV was crowned his interest in dancing was strongly supported and encouraged by Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, (formerly Mazarini), who assiste Louis XIV. The young king made his ballet debut as a boy, but it was in 1653 as a teenager that he accomplished his most memorable feat as a dancer. He performed a series of dances in Le Ballet de la Nuit and for his final piece he appeared as Apollo, god of the sun. Wearing a fancy golden Roman-cut corselet and a kilt of golden rays he came to be known as the Sun King, says the-ballet.com.

Cardinal Mazarin promoted Italian influences in the French spectacle. The ballet master he imported from Italy was Giovanni Baptista Lulli, who was rechristened Jean Baptiste Lully for work in France. Lully became one of the king's favorite dancers and rivaled the king as the best dancer in France.

In 1661 Louis established the Académie Royale de Danse in a room of the Louvre, the world's first ballet school.

Also in 1661 he attended a party put on by the finance minister to show off his new home in the country. The entertainment was Molière's ballet Les Fâcheaux which pleased the king to no end, although he thought that the finance minister was a treasonous servant. As it turned out, the finance minister was arrested, and the ballet master, the home's architect, and the gardener were hired by the king.

A note on the unlucky minister from Wikipedia -

Once a small château located between the royal residences of Vincennes and Fontainebleau, the estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte was purchased by Nicolas Fouquet in 1641. At that time he was an ambitious twenty-six year-old member of the Parlement of Paris. Fouquet was an avid patron of the arts and attracted many artists with the gifts and encouragements he poured on them.

When Fouquet became King Louis XIV's superintendent of finances (Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (France)) in 1657, he commissioned Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Nôtre to renovate his estate and garden to match his grand ambition. Fouquet’s artistic and cultivated personality subsequently brought out the best in the three.[2]

To secure the necessary grounds for the elaborate plans for Vaux-le-Vicomte’s garden and castle, Fouquet purchased and demolished three villages. The displaced villagers were then employed in the upkeep and maintenance of the gardens. It was said to have employed eighteen thousand workers and cost as much as sixteen million livres.[3]

The château and its patron became for a short time a focus for fine feasts, literature and arts. The poet La Fontaine and the playwright Molière were among the artists close to Fouquet. At the inauguration of Vaux-le-Vicomte, a Molière play was performed, along with a dinner event organized by François Vatel, and an impressive firework show.[4]
[edit] Fête and arrest

The château was lavish, refined, and dazzling to behold, but these characteristics proved tragic for its owner: the king had Fouquet arrested shortly after a famous fête that took place on 17 August 1661 where Molière's play 'Les Fâcheux' debuted.[5] The celebration had been too impressive and the superintendent's home too luxurious. Fouquet's intentions were to flatter the King: part of Vaux-le-Vicomte was actually constructed specifically for the king, but Fouquet's plan backfired. - And with the same designers, Louis would create the extraordinary palace of Versailles.


At court, Molière and Lully collaborated, with Molière choreographing and Lully composing the music for ballets. Pierre Beauchamps, another ballet master, also worked with them choreographing interludes in the dramatic parts. Beauchamps eventually was named "superintendent of the king's ballets" in the dance school that Louis established in 1661 and is now one of the most famous of the "fathers" of ballet. It is Beauchamps who has been given credit for standardizing the five foot positions of ballet, (first through fifth positions).

In 1669 Louis, (still Louis XIV), established the Académie Royale de Musique for Lully to run. Then, in 1670 the king, past his physical prime, retired from dancing, allowing other, better dancers to take lead roles.

In 1672 Lully established a dance academy within the Académie Royale de Musique. This dance company survives today as the ballet of the Paris Opera - the world's oldest continuously running ballet company.

Lully's seriousness towards the study of dance led to the development of professional dancers as opposed to courtiers who could dance. Up until 1681 ballet was performed almost exclusively by men. Then, in 1681 Lully staged Le Triomphe de l'Amour, featuring Mademoiselle de Lafontaine, (1665-1738).

In 1687 Lully died from an injury he received by accidentally stabbing his foot with his time marking stick. At this time, ballet was normally performed in the same productions as opera, a theatrical form known as opéra-ballet.

In 1700 Choréographie, ou l'art de décrire la danse was published by Raoul Auger Feuillet. This book wrote down both conventions of stage and ballroom dancing and attempted to create a dance notation similar to music. Although this notation was never finalized and standardized, it is the system that is still in use today as no other system has been developed. The word choréographie gives us the English word choreography and is derived from the greek khorea, (to dance), and graphein, (to write). By 1700 many of the words and movements common in today's ballet were already in use, including jeté, sissone, chassé, entrechat, pirouette, and cabriole.

Jazz dance: Tamara Mayer