Alvin Ailey Jr. (1931 - 1989)

Born 5 Jan 1931 in Rogers, Bell, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Died 1 Dec 1989 at age 58 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

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Biography

Alvin Ailey Jr. is Notable.

Alvin Ailey Jr. was awarded the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American.

Alvin Ailey was an African-American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist, and the founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.^[1]

Alvin's grim beginnings belied his future successes. He was born in Texas in 1931 to Alvin Ailey and Lula Cliff. Alvin Sr and Lula were mentioned in the obituary for their son in 1989.^[2]

Alvin grew up in Texas during the Depression, at a time when segregation and violent racism ruled the South. His father abandoned him and his mother when Alvin was about three months old. He and his mother worked in cotton fields or as domestics, traveling from one town to another seeking work. When he was five, Alvin saw his mother being raped by a white man. Alvin sought refuge in the church and in his daily journal writings.^[1]

In 1941, Alvin's mother moved to Los Angeles. Alvin followed a year later. His life began looking up after he enrolled in George Washington Carver Junior High School, and later Thomas Jefferson High School. His attendance in 1946 of several dance company performances sparked an interest in dance within him. Around 1949, his classmate and friend, Carmen De Lavallade, introduced him to Lester Horton, who became his mentor, and Horton's Melrose Avenue dance studio. He studied a wide variety of dance, including ballet and Native American movements, at Horton's studio. In 1953, he joined Horton's dance company, and that year became, for a brief time, its artistic director and choreographer.^[1]

He teamed up with Maya Angelou in the 1950s to perform a modern dance nightclub act called "Al and Rita."^[3] He went on to perform in several Broadway shows, including Truman Capote's House of Flowers and the Lena Horne vehicle, Jamaica, as well as Harry Belafonte's touring musical revue, Sing, Man, Sing.^[1]

In 1958, dissatisfied with the choreography he was experiencing, Alvin founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) to honor Black culture through dance. In 1960, he produced his most popular and critically acclaimed work, Revelations. In creating Revelations, Ailey "...drew upon his 'blood memories' of growing up in Texas surrounded by Black people, the church, spirituals, and the blues. The ballet charts the full range of feelings from the majestic 'I Been 'Buked' to the rapturous 'Wade in the Water,' closing with the electrifying finale, 'Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.'"^[1]

During his lifetime, the company would perform in 48 states and 71 countries^[4] on six continents, and would receive the Dance Magazine Award (1975), the Capezio Award (1979), the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (1987), and the Kennedy Center Honors (1988).^[5]

In 1969, with the aim of providing access to arts and dance to under-resourced communities, Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, now simply called The Ailey School, with the famed Martha Graham Dance Company principal and choreographer, Pearl Lang, as his co-director of the school.^[1]

In 1977, the NAACP awarded him the Spingarn Medal.^[1]

In 2014, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[1]

In 2017, Ailey was chosen as one of The Undefeated's 44 Most Influential Black Americans.

On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a vital American cultural ambassador to the World.^[1] Despite his great successes, Ailey fought a number of personal demons, aside from being black in a mostly white America. He was a gay man who kept his personal life private, at a time when being gay was not widely accepted. He suffered from bouts of heavy drinking and cocaine use. In 1980, he had a mental breakdown, and was diagnosed with manic depression, now known as bipolar disorder. His death was caused by an AIDS-related illness.^[5]

Alvin Ailey died in 1989 in Manhattan, New York,^[6] and was buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, Los Angeles County, California.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Wikipedia contributors, "Alvin Ailey," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alvin_Ailey&oldid=1066126225 (accessed January 31, 2022).
2. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV57-Y39F : accessed 18 August 2020), Alvin Ailey in entry for Alvin Ailey Jr, California, United States, 02 Dec 1989; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing , born-digital text.
3. ↑ Wikipedia, citing Becca Balint, "Al and Rita," The Brattleboro Reformer Retrieved 2022-01-28.
4. ↑ Including Brazil: "Brasil, Cartões de Imigração, 1900-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJY-19VJ : 9 May 2019), Alvin Ailey, Immigration; citing 1963, Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (National Archives, Rio de Janeiro).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 18 August 2020), memorial page for Alvin Ailey Jr. (5 Jan 1931–1 Dec 1989), Find A Grave: Memorial #1808, citing Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, Los Angeles County, California, USA; Maintained by Find A Grave.
6. ↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5W-S7V3 : accessed 18 August 2020), Alvin Ailey, California, United States, 02 Dec 1989; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing born-digital text.

See also:

• Wikipedia: Alvin Ailey
• Wikidata: Item Q449037, en:Wikipedia