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my mother, before me
Mar. 9th, 2011 11:18 amMy mom and I went to a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater last night (they're on tour). It was the most enthusiastic about anything artistic I've ever seen her. She was a modern dancer through her 20s and 30s. She wasn't famous, she was just a dancer - dance was her burning thing, and what took her to Indonesia, and thus how she met my father, etc. Before she started doing exclusively Javanese dance, she took after Merce Cunningham's style, which is very "abstract" (her words) and does not use music, and she described Alvin Ailey's style as essentially the opposite. The only dance story she's ever told me is of Merce Cunningham visiting her college's dance department or something and noticing how she was dancing (she was "falling very slowly") and saying "keep doing that." But she had gone to a performance by the AAADT and still recalled parts of "Revelations," which is Alvin Ailey's signature 1960 piece: "the story of African-American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom through a suite of dances set to spirituals and blues music." They performed "Revelations" last night, and it is indeed very soulful and religious and "epic." My favorite part of the whole performance was "Revelations"'' first segment, "Pilgrim of Sorrow." The upward-reaching hands in "I've Been 'Buked" symbolize a total commitment to reaching for something that cannot be touched.
We were reading the program and my mother was looking through the names mentioned - Katherine Dunham Dance Company, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Lester Horton - and saying, "ah, see, this," because this had been her world.
Alvin Ailey died in 1989 after appointing Judith Jamison as a successor - she is passing it on to Robert Battle, who choreographed "In/Side" - the lighting doesn't come through too well in that abridged video, but after this performance my mother immediately gave a standing ovation. She does give standing ovations, but usually it's after she sees other people doing it, and it's a slow ascent. This time she just shot up of her own accord. When she sat back down she was crying and said that was one of the best performances she had ever seen. She appreciates dance on a totally different level than I do, obviously - I'm always trying to "interpret" dance, and my reaction to "In/Side" was "it was like he was the last person on some planet and this was his mental process" and "the contrast between him being totally alone and the song, which is all about this other person being with him," whereas the most interpretation my mother provided for this dance was "it's like going really, really, really deep inside." What she first praised was the dancer's control and energy flow and the different shapes he could take and his "absolutely perfect stance," and how when he would momentarily relax she would think, "no, no, don't relax!"
She said in the parking garage that the performance was good for her soul. The only real chance I get to hear her perspective on dance is when we watch So You Think You Can Dance (she's a big fan of it), and in fact the AAADT gave a performance on SYTYCD last season that I think reminded her of the company, and inspired her to buy the tickets. I think the most benefit for my soul was actually just listening to her.
We were reading the program and my mother was looking through the names mentioned - Katherine Dunham Dance Company, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Lester Horton - and saying, "ah, see, this," because this had been her world.
Alvin Ailey died in 1989 after appointing Judith Jamison as a successor - she is passing it on to Robert Battle, who choreographed "In/Side" - the lighting doesn't come through too well in that abridged video, but after this performance my mother immediately gave a standing ovation. She does give standing ovations, but usually it's after she sees other people doing it, and it's a slow ascent. This time she just shot up of her own accord. When she sat back down she was crying and said that was one of the best performances she had ever seen. She appreciates dance on a totally different level than I do, obviously - I'm always trying to "interpret" dance, and my reaction to "In/Side" was "it was like he was the last person on some planet and this was his mental process" and "the contrast between him being totally alone and the song, which is all about this other person being with him," whereas the most interpretation my mother provided for this dance was "it's like going really, really, really deep inside." What she first praised was the dancer's control and energy flow and the different shapes he could take and his "absolutely perfect stance," and how when he would momentarily relax she would think, "no, no, don't relax!"
She said in the parking garage that the performance was good for her soul. The only real chance I get to hear her perspective on dance is when we watch So You Think You Can Dance (she's a big fan of it), and in fact the AAADT gave a performance on SYTYCD last season that I think reminded her of the company, and inspired her to buy the tickets. I think the most benefit for my soul was actually just listening to her.
