A deep dive into the life and career of a dancer and choreographer might not seem like a natural fit for the Whitney Museum, but it turns out that its new exhibition on Alvin Ailey (1931–89), “Edges of Ailey,” feels perfectly at home at the New York institution.
Music’s in the air, and there’s painting and sculpture in imaginative variety as an art museum gives rare treatment to an ephemeral medium. With the spirited, sense-surround show called Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New York art season gets off to an exuberant, enveloping, though puzzling start. The show is a major institutional tribute to the American choreographer and performer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989). It’s also a relatively rare example of a traditionally object-intensive art museum giving full-scale treatment to the ephemeral medium of dance.
As a retrospective opens at the Whitney Museum, New York, writers, curators and those close to the choreographer explore his vision to transform American dance
Alvin Ailey is one of the most accomplished and revered dancers in history. And yet, there has never been a wide-ranging exhibition chronicling his singular life, style of dance, company, and the impact he left on American culture. “Around 2018, there was a range of shows at museums about dance: the Lincoln Kirstein ballet, the Judson Dance Theater, Merce Cunningham,” Adrienne Edwards, senior curator at The Whitney Museum in New York City, told me recently. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Why not Ailey? Why hasn’t a museum done a show about him?’”
Alvin Ailey has never left the hearts of dancers, and it is that legacy which guides Edges of Ailey, the large-scale, multidisciplinary exhibition opening September 25 at the Whitney Museum. Under the direction of Senior Curator and Associate Director Adrienne Edwards, the life and works of the choreographer, dancer and artist are displayed alongside an archive of personal ephemera, music, and performance.
The name Ailey is synonymous with dance. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is more than a company: It’s a brand, an integral piece of the cultural fabric of this country. It’s huge. But somehow the man who created the Ailey empire has become lost inside it, obscured as if by an eclipse. Alvin Ailey was a choreographer who seamlessly melded dance forms, a dancer of extraordinary strength and beauty, and a man — a queer man — with an expansive, restless mind.
Linda Celeste Sims knows a thing or two about the Alvin Ailey classic Revelations. The Bronx native is a former Ailey American Dance Theater principal dancer and one of the longest tenured dancers to ever perform with the company.
As a Black New York native, I first heard the name Alvin Ailey when I was very young, even as someone not necessarily inclined toward the performing arts. The pioneering African American dancer, choreographer and activist came up in Texas in the violent Jim Crow South, where he recalled seeing members of the Klan. Eventually, he found his way to California to work on his craft, and then New York City
The annual DC Gala Benefit of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater coincided with the company's week-long residency at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
As Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates its 65th anniversary year, the organization has embarked on an initiative to honor the legacy of its founder, Alvin Ailey, by providing free educational resources through PBS.