Alvin Ailey’s Enduring Vision
Released on 11/29/2016
(bell dinging)
(dramatic orchestral music)
The notion of art as a weapon for change
has always been something that has moved me.
No matter what's happening in the world
it's always happening in the world somewhere.
And so I think it's easy to be myopic you know
and just sort of look at your general surroundings
and say look at what's happening to me.
(dramatic orchestral music)
I think it's important for us to at this time
see beyond our circumstances
and in that way I think we can do that through the arts
you know that we can do that through dance.
(dramatic orchestral music)
For people who don't know it's one of the most
seen and celebrated modern dance companies in the world.
It was founded in 1958 by Alvin Ailey who was a visionary.
(dramatic orchestral music)
He made a repertory company so that it could at once
be past, present and future.
(old timey music)
♫ When the nation calls young men ♫
I was asked to create a work to music
by Erwin Schulhoff who died in a concentration camp.
(orchestral music)
The notion of choreographing about the Holocaust
I found that to be overwhelming.
What really sort of focused the work
is really thinking about his life.
Thinking about him as sort of a radical artist
and composer and relating to that artistic connection.
And so I felt that when I created this work
No Longer Silent he was sort of walking me through his life.
[Narrator] To change these conditions
the leading black liberation organization
the African National Congress has begun a mass movement
of civil disobedience defying the laws
of racial superiority called apartheid.
[Robert] Masekela Langage was created
by Alvin Ailey in 1969.
It was a response to apartheid
but it was also looking at Chicago
and the Chicago riots and unrest that was happening
and making that connection.
(cannon blasting)
(bluesy music)
Alvin Ailey himself I mean he lived through segregation
and the things that he choreographed
his blood memories are things that he saw.
He said once that he thinks that the most
powerful works of art are usually the ones
that are the most personal.
(bluesy music)
(piano music)
He always said what he was trying to do
is hold a mirror to society so that people
could see how beautiful they are.
I think that we always need to remember
that it is our responsibility to contribute
to beauty in the world.
Always.
(piano music)
This is where the arts really I think
play a great role in the world
because often the artifacts of the past
or things that we've gone through as a society
or world or whatever it is is reflected
in the music of that time
reflected in the painting and all of that
that inspire us to go beyond our circumstance.
I hope that that is the message
that we celebrate our common humanity.
(orchestral music)
Flight of the Pigeon
The Stage Life of a Puppet
Pisillo: A Love Story
A Virtuoso’s Choral Legacy
Lady Bunny’s Lasting Spirit
House of Political Horrors
Speaking the Language of Jazz
Holiday Whimsy at the New York Botanical Garden
Alvin Ailey’s Enduring Vision
Andrew Bird’s Musical Evolution
Diana Vishneva’s Last Days with American Ballet Theatre
The Heart of Double Dutch
Bringing Gospel to the Opera