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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper which examines the impact this dancer and choreographer had on the socio-cultural development of dance. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGailey.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
in Eastern and Western Europe, Caucasians exclusively influenced dance, and nearly all ballet companies excluded black dancers (Garafola, 1997). However, by the 1920s, the jazz rhythms of black composers
inspired a modern dance craze in America that embraced black dancers. But beyond tap and modern dance, bigoted the socio-cultural attitudes of the times prevented blacks from taking a
more active in its development. These were the times into which Alvin Ailey, Jr. was born on January 5, 1931, in Rogers, Texas (Dingus, 2000). Despite having his
fathers name, Ailey never knew him, but he and his mother knew firsthand the effects of rural poverty (Dingus, 2000). Ailey would later recall in his autobiography that it
was the combination of poverty and racism that characterized the Texas of the 1930s, which left "an enormous stain" on the rest of his life (Dingus, 2000, p. 196).
But so also did the blues music he heard as a child being performed in nearby Navasota nightclubs and the impassioned Sunday morning Baptist spirituals (Dingus, 2000). In 1942,
Ailey and his mother relocated to Los Angeles in hopes of improving their socioeconomic prospects, and it was this dramatic change from a rural to urban environment that would have
a profound impact upon Aileys all-inclusive approach to dance (Dingus, 2000; McDonagh, 1998). While growing up, Ailey would watch the live performances like blues greats Billie Holiday and Duke
Ellington, which inspired him to create dances that would interpret these evocative mood pieces (Dingus, 2000). By the age of eighteen, Alvin Ailey was studying dance with Lester Horton,
who had distinguished himself by having one of the few racially integrated troupes of the era (Dingus, 2000). In addition, he studied ballet with Karel Shook and explored the
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