Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Revelations. Photo by Paul Kolnik.
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER REVELATIONS
Educator Packet Digital Student Performance Tuesday, June 9, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Company 2
About the Founder and Leadership 3-4
About the Program - Revelations 5-6
About the Music 6
Assessment for Students 7
About The Music Center 8
OVERVIEW
Glorya Kaufmann Presents Dance at The Music Center Digital Student Performance ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER - REVELATIONS
The Music Center is thrilled to be able to provide elementary and middle school students with a digital student performance. We hope that this will be an engaging and inspiring experience for you and your students, and we look forward to when we can safely invite you and your students back to The Music Center!
WHEN SPONSORED BY Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Center Dance Arts 11:00am Anita Mann Kohl and Allen D Kohl
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ABOUT THE COMPANY
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from a now-fabled performance in March 1958 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance.
The Ailey company has gone on to perform for an estimated 25 million people at theaters in 48 states and 71 countries on six continents – as well as millions more through television broadcasts, film screenings, and online platforms. Photo by Jack Mitchell. In 2008, a U.S. Congressional resolution designated the Company as “a vital American cultural ambassador ALVIN AILEY to the world” that celebrates the uniqueness of FOUNDER the African-American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern Alvin Ailey was born on January 5, 1931, in Rogers, dance heritage. When Mr. Ailey began creating dances, Texas. His experiences of life in the rural South would he drew upon his "blood memories" of Texas, using later inspire some of his most memorable works. the blues, spirituals, and gospel as inspiration, He was introduced to dance in Los Angeles by which resulted in the creation of his most popular and performances of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and critically acclaimed work, Revelations. Although the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, and his formal he created 79 ballets over his lifetime, Mr. Ailey dance training began with an introduction to Lester maintained that his company was not exclusively Horton’s classes by his friend, dancer Carmen de a repository for his own work. Lavallade. Horton, the founder of one of the first Today, the Company continues Mr. Ailey's mission racially-integrated dance companies in the United by presenting important works of the past and States, became a mentor for Mr. Ailey as he embarked commissioning new ones. In all, more than 235 works on his professional career. After Horton’s death in 1953, by over 90 choreographers have been part of the Mr. Ailey became director of the Lester Horton Dance Ailey company’s repertory. Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In the 1950s and 60s, Mr. Ailey performed in four Before his untimely death in 1989, Broadway shows, including House of Alvin Ailey named Judith Jamison as his successor, Flowers and Jamaica. and over the next 21 years, she brought the Company to unprecedented success. Ms. Jamison, In 1958, he founded Alvin Ailey American in turn, personally selected Robert Battle to succeed Dance Theater to carry out his vision of a company her in 2011, and The New York Times declared he dedicated to enriching the American modern dance “has injected the company with new life.” heritage and preserving the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience. He established the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (now The Ailey School) in 1969 and formed the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (now Ailey II) in 1974.
Mr. Ailey was a pioneer of programs promoting arts in education, particularly those benefiting underserved communities. Throughout his lifetime, he was awarded numerous distinctions, including the Kennedy Center Honor in 1988 in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to American culture. In 2014, he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of his contributions and commitment to civil rights and dance in America. When Mr. Ailey died on December 1, 1989, The New York Times said of him, “You didn’t need to have known [him] personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm, and exuberance and his courageous stand Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Company members. for multi-racial brotherhood.” Photo by Andrew Eccles.
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Photo by Andrew Eccles. Photo by Andrew Eccles.
JUDITH JAMISON ROBERT BATTLE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EMERITA ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Judith Jamison joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Robert Battle became artistic director of Alvin Ailey Theater in 1965 and quickly became an international American Dance Theater in July 2011 after being star. Over the next 15 years, Mr. Ailey created some of personally selected by Judith Jamison, making him only his most enduring roles for her, most notably the tour- the third person to head the Company since it was de-force solo Cry. During the 1970s and 80s, she founded in 1958. Mr. Battle has a long-standing association with the Ailey organization. appeared as a guest artist with ballet companies all over the world, starred in the hit Broadway A frequent choreographer and artist-in-residence at Ailey musical Sophisticated Ladies, and formed her own since 1999, he has set many of his works on Alvin Ailey company, The Jamison Project. She returned to Alvin American Dance Theater and Ailey II, and at The Ailey Ailey American Dance Theater in 1989 when Mr. Ailey School. The Company’s current repertory includes his asked her to succeed him as Artistic Director. ballets Awakening, No Longer Silent, and The Hunt. In In the 21 years that followed, she brought the Company addition to expanding the Ailey repertory with works by to unprecedented heights – including two historic artists as diverse as Kyle Abraham, Mauro Bigonzetti, Hope engagements in South Africa and a 50-city global tour Boykin, Ronald K. Brown, Rennie Harris, Matthew Rushing, to celebrate the Company’s 50th anniversary. Paul Taylor, and Christopher Wheeldon, Mr. Battle has also Ms. Jamison is the recipient of numerous awards instituted the New Directions Choreography Lab to help and honors, among them a prime-time Emmy Award, develop the next generation of choreographers. an American Choreography Award, the Kennedy Center Mr. Battle’s journey to the top of the modern dance world Honor, a National Medal of Arts, a “Bessie” Award, began in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. the Phoenix Award, and the Handel Medallion. He showed artistic talent early and studied dance at a high She was also listed in “TIME 100: The World’s Most school arts magnet program before moving on to Miami’s Influential People” and honored by First Lady Michelle New World School of the Arts, under the direction of Obama at the first White House Dance Series event. Daniel Lewis and Gerri Houlihan, and finally to the dance In 2015, she became the 50th inductee into the Hall of program at The Juilliard School, under the direction of Fame at the National Museum of Dance. Benjamin Harkarvy, where he met his mentor, Carolyn Adams. He danced with The Parsons Dance Company from As a highly regarded choreographer, Ms. Jamison 1994 to 2001, and also set his choreography on that has created many celebrated works, including company starting in 1998. Mr. Battle then founded his own Divining (1984), Forgotten Time (1989), Hymn (1993), Battleworks Dance Company, which made its debut in HERE . . .NOW. (Commissioned for the 2002 Cultural 2002 in Düsseldorf, Germany, as the U.S. representative to Olympiad), Love Stories (with additional choreography the World Dance Alliance’s Global Assembly. Battleworks by Robert Battle and Rennie Harris, 2004), and subsequently performed extensively at venues including Among Us (Private Spaces: Public Places, 2009). The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, American Ms. Jamison’s autobiography, Dancing Spirit, was edited Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and published in 1993. Mr. Battle was honored as one of the “Masters of African- In 2004, under Ms. Jamison’s artistic directorship, American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center for the her idea of a permanent home for the Ailey Company Performing Arts in 2005, and he received the prestigious was realized and named after beloved chairman emerita Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in Joan Weill. Ms. Jamison continues to dedicate herself 2007. In 2014 he received an honorary doctorate from The to asserting the prominence of the arts in our culture, University of the Arts. Mr. Battle was named a 2015 and she remains committed to promoting the Visiting Fellow for The Art of Change, an initiative by the significance of the Ailey legacy – using dance as a Ford Foundation. He is a sought-after keynote speaker and medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present has addressed a number of high-profile organizations, and fearlessly reaching into the future. including the United Nations Leaders Programme and the UNICEF Senior Leadership Development Programme.
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Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims in Revelations. Photo by Whitney Browne.
REVELATIONS ABOUT THE PROGRAM
CHOREOGRAPHER: Alvin Ailey
RUN TIME: 36 Minutes - The sections that will be featured during the digital student performance are: “I Been 'Buked,” “Wade in the Water” and “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham”
PREMIERE: New York, Kaufman Concert Hall, 92nd Street YM-YWHM, 1960
COSTUMES: Costumes for “Rocka My Soul” section redesigned by Barbara Forbes.
DÉCOR & COSTUMES: Originally by Lawrence Maldonado; Revival décor and costumes by Ves Harper.
LIGHTING: Nicola Cernovitch
MUSIC: Various Artists
MUSICAL STYLE: Traditional Spirituals
ALVIN AILEY WEBSITE: www.alvinailey.org
VIDEO CLIPS: https://www.alvinailey.org/performances/repertory/revelations
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REVELATIONS ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Jacqueline Green in Revelations. Photo by Paul Kolnik.
Using African-American spirituals, song- sermons, gospel songs and holy blues, Alvin Ailey’s Revelations fervently explores the places of deepest grief and holiest joy in the soul.
More than just a popular dance work, it has become a cultural treasure, beloved by generations of fans. Seeing Revelations for the first time or the hundredth can be a transcendent experience, with audiences cheering, singing along and dancing in their seats from the opening notes of the plaintive “I Been ’Buked” to the rousing “Wade in the Water” and the triumphant finale, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”
Ailey said that one of America’s richest treasures was the African-American cultural heritage —“sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.” This enduring classic is a tribute to that tradition, born out of the choreographer’s “blood memories” of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church. But since its premiere in 1960, the ballet has been performed continuously around the globe, transcending barriers of faith and nationality, and appealing to universal emotions, making it the most widely-seen modern dance work in the world.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
PILGRIM OF SORROW “I Been 'Buked” - Music arranged by Hall Johnson* “Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel” – Music arranged by James Miller+ “Fix Me, Jesus” - Music arranged by Hall Johnson*
TAKE ME TO THE WATER “Processional/Honor, Honor” - Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts “Wade in the Water” - Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts "Wade in the Water" sequence by Ella Jenkins / "A Man Went Down to the River" is an original composition by Ella Jenkins “I Wanna Be Ready” - Music arranged by James Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company members, Revelations. Miller+ Photo by Gert Krautbaue.
MOVE, MEMBERS, MOVE “Sinner Man” - Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts. “The Day is Past and Gone” - Music arranged by Howard A. Roberts and Brother John Sellers. “You May Run On” - Music arranged by Howard A. Roberts and Brother John Sellers. “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham” - Music adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts.
* Used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. + Used by special arrangement with Galaxy Music Corporation, New York City.
Resources: The Music Center's ArtSource Curriculum – Alvin Ailey’s Revelations: https://www.musiccenter.org/education/Teacher-Resources/Artsource-Curriculum/Available-ArtSource-Units/Alvin-Ailey/
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ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENTS
Glorya Kaufmann Presents Dance at The Music Center Digital Student Performance ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER - REVELATIONS
Essential Question: Where do choreographers get ideas for dances?
What did I know about Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater before coming to the performance?
What did I learn from watching the performance?
How was the music an important element of the performance?
What themes did you see in the pieces?
In what historical period(s) did the dances take place?
Select one of the following writing prompts that describe your response to the performances:
1. Most memorable or inspiring:
2. Made me think or ask questions:
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ABOUT THE MUSIC CENTER
The Music Center convenes artists, communities and ideas with the goal of deepening the cultural lives of every resident in Los Angeles County. The non-profit performing arts organization has two divisions: The Music Center Arts (TMC Arts) and The Music Center Operations (TMC Ops). TMC Arts, The Music Center’s programming engine, provides year-round programming inside The Music Center’s four theatres, on The Music Center Plaza, outside at Grand Park—a 12-acre adjacent green space—and in schools and other locations all over Los Angeles County. TMC Arts presents world-class dance with Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, free and low-cost public concerts and events, as well as K–12 arts education programs. TMC Ops manages the theatres, the Plaza and Grand Park on behalf of the County of Los Angeles. The Music Center is also home to four renowned resident companies—Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Master Chorale, LA Opera and LA Phil.
MUSIC CENTER EDUCATION The Music Center has long been a champion of arts education with dynamic programs that inspire lifelong learning, take the arts into schools and bring young audiences to The Music Center. These programs in dance, music, theatre, and visual arts engage children from PreK-12, teachers and aspiring young talent throughout Los Angeles County. We believe the arts enrich the lives of all people and are crucial to the development of every child. Currently our programs focus on:
Arts integration Partnerships with schools where Music Center teaching artists work in classrooms to empower student creativity and develop their artistic, workforce and life skills. The AIP program deepens learning across the curriculum in collaboration with classroom teachers by combining dance, music, theatre, visual and media arts with content areas including English Language Arts, history, science and social emotional learning for students of all ages and abilities.
Professional Development programs that bring educators together to participate in an experiential and immersive approach to integrating dance, music, theatre, visual and media arts into their classrooms. The focus is on meeting educators where they are and building their capacity over time and in depth — both at school sites and at The Music Center. As but one example, each year The Music Center’s Summer Arts Studio for Educators engages participants in all grade levels, art forms and content areas.
In-school educational performances that invite students into the world of the performing arts and engage young people in dance, music, theatre and storytelling. These high-energy, compelling experiences are committed to excellence, rich educational content and the great diversity of Los Angeles and of the world. Each performance includes customized curriculum that connects to multiple content areas.
The Spotlight Young Artists Program - a nationally acclaimed, free arts training and scholarship program that develops the creative capacity of high school performing artists in Southern California.
Student festivals at The Music Center, including the Very Special Arts Festival that engages students of all abilities as artistic creators and contributors and the Blue Ribbon Children’s Festival, where fifth graders across the county experience live performances and dance together as a community.
Student Matinee performances during each season on Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, where students experience world-class dance performances that celebrate the diversity of L.A. communities.
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“Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.”
-Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Company members. Photo by Andrew Eccles.
THE MUSIC CENTER EDUCATION STAFF 135 N. Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90012 Keith Wyffels Associate Vice President, Education (213) 972-7211 Susan Cambigue-Tracey Director of Special Projects Patrice Cantarelli Associate Director, School Programs www.musiccenter.org Rada Jovicic Program and Events Manager Ebony Ruffin Manager, Professional Development [email protected] Juan Sanchez School Programs Coordinator Sandy Seufert Interim, School Programs Manager CONNECT WITH US Monk Turner Manager, Music Center on Tour @musiccenterla Belinda Younis School Programs Manager Jacklyn Waight School Programs Coordinator Vincent Lopez School Programs Assistant
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