Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance
Alvin Ailey (19311989) was a choreographic giant in the modern dance world and a champion of African-American talent and culture. His interracial Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater provided opportunities to black dancers and choreographers when no one else would. His acclaimed “Revelations” remains one of the most performed modern dance pieces in the twentieth century. But he led a tortured life, filled with insecurity and self-loathing. Raised in poverty in rural Texas by his single mother,...
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Alvin Ailey (1931–1989) was a choreographic giant in the modern dance world and a champion of African-American talent and culture. His interracial Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater provided opportuni Library Journal Ailey was one of the choreographic giants of this century, known particularly for his evocation of the African American experience. Dunning, a dance critic and reporter for the New York Times, has meticulously researched the choreographer's often difficult and always guarded life, from his "rambling, rural" boyhood in southeastern Texas and adolescence in Los Angeles, where he began dance studies with Lester Horton, to his early Broadway appearances and the glory years of the New York-based Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dunning interviewed more than 135 persons and made extensive use of archival material, as well as the posthumously published Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey (with Peter Bailey, Birch Lane, 1995). As the book's subtitle suggests, Dunning focuses on the career, relating a clean chronological narrative of dances, seasons, and tours. Yet the personal torments (e.g., racial discrimination, bouts of manic-depressiveness, and death from AIDS in 1989) as well as the abundant charm and energy of the private man are described as well. Essential for any library maintaining a core collection of modern dance or African American culture, and for comprehensive collections in gay studies or American biography.Robert W. Melton, Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence
\ Library JournalAiley was one of the choreographic giants of this century, known particularly for his evocation of the African American experience. Dunning, a dance critic and reporter for the New York Times, has meticulously researched the choreographer's often difficult and always guarded life, from his "rambling, rural" boyhood in southeastern Texas and adolescence in Los Angeles, where he began dance studies with Lester Horton, to his early Broadway appearances and the glory years of the New York-based Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dunning interviewed more than 135 persons and made extensive use of archival material, as well as the posthumously published Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey (with Peter Bailey, Birch Lane, 1995). As the book's subtitle suggests, Dunning focuses on the career, relating a clean chronological narrative of dances, seasons, and tours. Yet the personal torments (e.g., racial discrimination, bouts of manic-depressiveness, and death from AIDS in 1989) as well as the abundant charm and energy of the private man are described as well. Essential for any library maintaining a core collection of modern dance or African American culture, and for comprehensive collections in gay studies or American biography.Robert W. Melton, Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence\ \ \ \ \ Allan Ulrich[A]uthor Dunning, a veteran New York Times dance critic and reporter, has given us a book worthy of her subject - a compassionate, objective, yet superbly informed and meticulously researched study of a genuine superstar.\ — The Advocate\ \ \ Chicago Sun TimesFinely researched and beautifully written. -- Chicago Sun Times\ \
