The 90th Birthday Celebration for Alvin Ailey Was Today Through the Extension So We Have Something Else to Talk About Even Though It’s Also the Same Thing

 

As Ms Jamison said today “We’re gonna end with Earth Wind and Fire today ‘cause WE been through the Earth, the Wind, and the Fire”

 

There was a celebratory workshop today taught through the Ailey Extension by Artistic Director Judith Jamison, where we really were taught some of the original Ailey repertoire (those artists make it look so easy.  That stuff is WAY harder than it looks).

 

We were also taught some of the history that came through the choreography – she told us when she was learning “Cry”, the great Ailey solo for which she’s most famous, that when she was first learning the choreography Dr. Pearl Primus brought some of the steps BACK directly from the Masai … and then she told us to remember there was always a PURPOSE to the dance and that we should know the purpose; that it’s not just some bunch of pretty port de bras.

 

She also wore me out – I thought I’d been training up from when the workshop was first announced (ha) so I will stop typing and offer AMBER’S interpretation along with some peoples’ thoughts on an overused national phrase, as well as some of  the music from class and some musical accompaniment to Jeffrey Wright’s thoughts, because, as Amber says, “the news is a crazy mess this week”