2011 – 2012

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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater • njpac.org

CONTENTSOn StageCelebrating the human spirit

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In the SpotlightContinuing the Ailey legacy

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Did You Know?African Americans in Dance: Pioneers and Con-temporary Choreographers

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Dance TalkWords associated with dance

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In the ClassroomTeaching Science Through Dance and other activities

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More ResourcesRelated readings and other media

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FoundationKid Power!Through energy efficiency and conservation, kids can help preserve our planet’s rich natural resources and promote a healthy environment.

TIP OF THE DAY

Fresh air for allAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates beauty, spirit and hope throughout the world. It is a world that needs to be protected from air pollution. You can help reduce air pollution by walking, riding your bicycle or taking the bus instead of always going by car. Made possible through the generosity of the PSEG Foundation.

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The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) Arts Education Department presents the 15th season of the Verizon Passport to Culture SchoolTime Performance Series.

Teacher’s Resource GuideThis resource guide will help you prepare your class for an enriching experience at our SchoolTime Performance. The guide provides discussion ideas, activities and reading resources that can promote arts literacy in your classroom. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this guide to any class attending a 2011-2012 SchoolTime Performance (all other rights reserved). You can find additional resources online at artsed.njpac.org.

NJPAC Arts EducationAt NJPAC, our mission is to join with parents, teachers and community to cultivate an appreciation of the arts in all children of New Jersey. We believe the arts provide an effective means of knowing and learning that helps children find the self-esteem, poise and confidence they need to succeed in every facet of life. Our innovative programs are designed to engage the artist in every child:

In-School Residencies Bring the joy of dance, music and theater directly into your classroom with teaching artists who create stimulating performing arts experiences that engage students’ imaginations and encourage their creative self-expression.

SchoolTime and FamilyTime Performances Open your students’ eyes to the worlds of music, dance, storytelling, theater, and puppetry through professional stage productions.

Arts Training Programs Students express themselves through after-school study of acting, dance, instrumental music, vocal music, and musical theater. Teaching artists with professional performing arts experience mentor the students at NJPAC’s Center for Arts Education.

VISIT US ONLINEFind additional resources online at artsed.njpac.org

On Stage

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s splendid dancers demonstrate their technical prowess and artistic range in Revelations, Ailey’s most famous work. The Company will also present an excerpt from Night Creature, one of Ailey’s most joyful works and Artistic Director Robert Battle’s fast-paced Takademe.

Inspired by Ailey’s experience in the Baptist church during his childhood in Texas, Revelations has become a spiritual journey for audiences of all faiths and cultures. The dance builds in waves, accumulating slowly in power from tenderness to excitement. Using African-American religious music—spirituals, song-sermons and holy blues—this suite

Celebrating the human spirit

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fervently explores the places of deepest grief and holiest joy in the soul. The striking originality of Revelations is still evident today, as new audiences join the current generation of dancers in the rousing finale to “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”

The work is divided into three sections: “Pilgrim of Sorrow,” dances of meditation and prayer; “Take Me to the Water,” a scene of baptism; and “Move, Members, Move” which focuses on sin, chastisement and joy. With a mass of dancers in a pool of light, the initial movements of Revelations speak of their struggle to emerge from pain and sorrow. The themes of sin and

atonement and prayer and forgiveness are explored in the next segment of the dance. A processional leads into the ritual of a traditional baptism that portrays both the rippling “river” and clapping congregants. The final section of the dance suggests a rollicking, exultant church service with the members greeting each other, commenting on the sermon and joining together in a stomping, joyous celebration. Alvin Ailey said that one of America’s richest treasures was the cultural heritage of the African-American—“sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.” An enduring classic, Revelations, with its beautifully modulated choreography and its emotional expression of African-American culture, is a tribute to that heritage and to Ailey’s genius.

“Night creatures, unlike stars, do not come OUT at night-- they come ON, each thinking that before the night is out he or she will be the star.” —Duke Ellington

The Company will also present an excerpt from Night Creature in which Alvin Ailey’s classically influenced choreography juxtaposes with Duke Ellington’s jazz idiom. One of Mr. Ailey’s most popular works, the dance captivates with Ailey’s sensual nighttime rituals that propel the movement toward a fast-paced climax using slow jazz walks, boogie woogie and ballet arabesques to create prowling patterns and communal configurations.

And finally, for his first season as artistic director, Mr. Battle has chosen to bring Takademe, one of his first creations, to the Ailey company. Performed to the tightly woven rhythms of Indian Kathak dance, this highly kinetic, demanding work presents clear shapes and propulsive jumps that mimic the vocalized rhythmic syllables of a jazzy score by composer/musician Sheila Chandra.

[Note: Kathak is one of the eight officially sanctioned classical dance forms of India. The word Kathak is derived from katha, meaning “the art of storytelling.” The structure of a conventional Kathak performance tends to follow a progression in tempo from slow to fast, ending with a dramatic climax.]

Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims in Alvin Ailey’s Revelations

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Jamison as his successor, and over the next 21 years, she brought the Company to unprecedented success. Ms. Jamison, in turn, personally selected Robert Battle to succeed her in 2011. In announcing his appointment as artistic director, she stated, “Combining an intimate knowledge of the Ailey company with an independent perspective, Robert Battle is without question the creative force of the future.”

Robert Battle became artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in July 2011, making him only the third person to head the Company since it was founded in 1958. Mr. Battle has a long-standing association with the Ailey organization. A frequent choreographer and artist-in-residence at Ailey since 1999, he has set many of his works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II, and at The Ailey School. The Company’s current

repertory includes his ballets The Hunt, In/Side, Love Stories (a collaboration with Judith Jamison and Rennie Harris), and Takademe. Mr. Battle’s journey to the top of the modern dance world began in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. He showed artistic talent early and studied dance at a high school arts magnet program before moving on to Miami’s New World School of the Arts, under the direction of Daniel Lewis and Gerri Houlihan. Finally, he attended the dance progam at The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, where he met his mentor Carolyn Adams. Mr. Battle danced with the Parsons Dance Company from 1994 to 2001 and also set his choreography on that company starting in 1998. He then founded his own Battleworks Dance Company, which made its premiere in 2002 in Düsseldorf, Germany as the U.S. representative to the World Dance Alliance’s Global Assembly. Battleworks subsequently performed extensively at venues including The Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, American Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. He has also created new works and restaged his ballets for such companies as Introdans, River North Chicago Dance Company and Ballet Memphis. He regularly conducts residencies at universities throughout the United States and gives master

classes around the globe. Mr. Battle was honored as one of the “Masters of African-American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005, and he received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in 2007. In July 2010, he was a guest speaker at the United Nations Leaders Programme in Turin, Italy.

The influence of African Americans in American dance

has been enormous. Every aspect of dance, including social,

Broadway theater, street, and modern dance, shows the impact of African Americans past and present. This influence has its roots in African dance.

In the Spotlight

Continuing the Ailey Legacy

Artistic Director Robert Battle

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater • njpac.org4

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from a now-fabled performance in March 1958 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance. The Ailey company has gone on to perform for an estimated 23 million people at theaters in 48 states and 71 countries on 6 continents as well as for millions more through television broadcasts. In 2008, a U.S. Congressional resolution designated the Company as “a vital American cultural ambassador to the world” that celebrates the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern

dance heritage. When Mr. Ailey began creating dances, he drew upon his “blood memories” of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel as inspiration, which resulted in the creation of his most popular and critically acclaimed work, Revelations. Although he created 79 ballets over his lifetime, Mr. Ailey maintained that his company was not exclusively a repository for his own work. Today, the Company continues Mr. Ailey’s mission by presenting important works of the past and commissioning new ones. In all, more than 200 works by over 80 choreographers have been part of the Ailey company’s repertory. Before his untimely death in 1989, Alvin Ailey named Judith

“It’s impressive to watch the Ailey dancers in this

first season under Robert Battle.”

— The New York Times

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Dance in African communities is a natural part of daily life. Every African child attends ritual and recreational events, singing and dancing along with the community. The view of dance as a necessary, respected art is woven into the heritage of African Americans.

Several PioneersAfrican-American influences in social dance were felt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in dances such as the Cake Walk, Charleston and the Lindy hop. Meanwhile, the development of jazz dance and tap by African Americans paralleled the rise of jazz music and influenced America’s musical theater. During this time, it was difficult for African Americans to train or perform in more established dance forms, particularly classical ballet. In modern dance, America’s indigenous dance, the racial barriers were not as pronounced. Some modern dance choreographers, including Anna Sokolow and Lester Horton, employed multiracial casts of dancers. Horton, in fact, trained young African-American dancer Alvin Ailey, who would become a major figure in American dance.

Alvin Ailey aspired to reach a mass audience through dance and has been more successful in this goal than any other American choreographer. His work has greatly broadened the appeal of concert dance, drawing new dance audiences in large numbers. Ailey was the first choreographer to move freely between modern dance and ballet.As much as Alvin Ailey is acknowledged as a pioneer, other artists and teachers set the stage for his contributions.

Lester Horton (1906-1953) was a West Coast choreographer and visionary teacher who was Alvin Ailey’s early teacher and mentor. Horton combined elements of Japanese theater, Native-American ritual and mythology with an earthy, powerful style of movement. His studio was open to dancers of all races and ethnic backgrounds.

Katherine Dunham (1919-2006) was the first dancer/choreographer to organize a concert dance company for African-American artists and to seriously

explore African-American folklore. Her company performed her highly successful blend of folk material, ballet and modern dance throughout the United States and Europe.

Probably the finest American scholar of African dance, Pearl Primus (1919-1994), trained first as a modern dancer. She devoted her life to studying and performing the dances of Africa. A spectacular dancer known for her jumps and percussive high energy, Primus is also remembered for her eloquent choreographic statements about race.

A student of Lester Horton, Donald McKayle (1930- ) emerged as a gifted choreographer who has worked with modern dance companies, on Broadway, in television, and in theatrical revues.

A veteran performer with Katherine Dunham’s troupe, Talley Beatty (1923-1995) has had his choreography in the repertory of many companies including the Boston Ballet, Ballet Hispanica of New York City and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He also had a long and fruitful collaboration with Duke Ellington.

Several contemporary choreographers

The Ailey company has been fertile ground for nurturing contemporary African-American choreographers. These choreographers are providing the next chapter in the rich history of African-American contributions to American dance.

Some of them produced their first works for the Company, while others brought highly developed styles to the Ailey repertory. These brilliant choreographers include: Donald Byrd, who often mixes classicism and a love of jazz into provocative choreographic statements; Bill T. Jones, whose passion, political statements and dazzling physicality have made him one of the most important contemporary choreographers; Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founder of the Urban Bush Women dance company, who

challenges Ailey dancers to explore social issues and gender roles; Ronald K. Brown who has melded a modern dance vocabulary to elements of African dance; Rennie Harris, whose work encompasses rich and diverse African traditions while simultaneously presenting the voice of a new generation; Joan Myers Brown, founder of the internationally celebrated PHILADANCO dance company; Milton Myers, who is honored for his artistry and contribution to dance; and Camille A. Brown, whose choreography leads dancers through dazzling excavations of ancestral stories, both timeless and traditional, as well as immediate contemporary issues.

Did You Know?

African Americans in Dance

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater • njpac.org 5

Lester Horton

lighting designer – the person who designs and arranges the illumination of a performance.

stage manager – the person who calls the cues for the dance, e.g., changes in lighting, raising and lowering curtains, moving scenery, and directs the theater technicians backstage.

theater technicians – persons who are responsible for the backstage technical activities such as lighting, sets, curtains, and sound.

All dance has the same three basic building blocks:

space – the whole design and use of the place in which a dance unfolds.

time – a measurable period during which movement or dance occurs. Dance makes the passage of time felt by dividing it into anything from complex, rhythmic patterns to periods of long, unbroken stillness.

energy – the amount or force of the movement, also sometimes referred to as the color or texture of the movement.

Dance productions sometimes incorporate some of the following theatrical elements:

props – items used to create a sense of place, or items used by the dancers in the movements of the dance.

scenery – the environment or setting of a dance created through the use of painted flats, painted backdrops, cloth drops, or slides on a cyclorama, a white screen-like curtain at the back of the stage. score – the musical or sound accompaniment for the dance, which may be created for the dance or may be pre-existing music or sound.

stage lights – electrical equipment used to illuminate the stage or an area of the stage or to suggest a mood or setting.

A dance production requires many people in different roles, working together as a team including:

artistic director – the creative leader of a dance company who may or may not be a choreographer. The director makes the decisions about hiring and casting the dancers and about the repertory, the dances which a company may perform at any given time.

choreographer – the artist who creates a dance and often teaches it to the dancers.

composer – the person who creates the music for a dance.

dancer – a performer who executes and gives meaning to the movements of a dance.

rehearsal director – the person responsible for coaching and rehearsing a dance after the choreographer makes the dance.

designer – the person who creates the costumes and sometimes the sets for a dance.

Dance Talk

Words associated with dance

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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Night Creature

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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater • njpac.org

Before the Performance Teaching Science Through Dance (Grades 6-12)By Sharon J. Sherman, Ed.D.

Through the arts, students gain enlightenment, education and entertainment. Imagination and intuition drive their work as they engage in this creative process. When science is integrated with the arts, students begin to make meaningful connections across the disciplines. Barriers between subjects are broken, disciplines are connected and lessons become real-life experiences.

In the secondary grades, students learn that all organisms transfer matter and convert energy from one form to another. We need both matter and energy to build and maintain our vital living systems. Matter cycles and energy flows through different levels of organization within these living systems. There is also transfer between living systems and the physical environment. As this transfer happens, chemical elements recombine, and new products form (Science Standard 5.3.12.B.).

In science class, ask students to cite evidence that the transfer and transformation of matter and energy links organisms to one another and to their physical setting. Have them comment on the statement, “All life depends on green plants.” Listen as students relate their ideas about how organisms are connected in terms of feeding and energy. Then ask, “Can we live in a world without green plants?” and “Can we live in a world without light?”

Students in middle school can be challenged to create dances that depict a world without light. Have them imagine the consequences of living in a world without solar energy. How would this affect photosynthesis and our food webs?

For high school students, an exploration of the nitrogen cycle would be an appropriate way to extend this concept. Using movement to create narrative, have students show how one atom of nitrogen interacts with an animal, soil, a plant, bacteria, and the air. In this activity, students will use improvisational skill to generate original movement as they demonstrate understanding of the science concept.

Sharon J. Sherman, Ed.D., is Dean of the School of Education and Professor of Teacher Education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The Teaching Science Through the Arts content of this guide is made possible through the generous support of Roche.

After the Performance1. In discussing a dance performance, rather than simply asking “Did you like this dance?”, it is often more productive to ask the question “What did you see in the dance?” or “What do you remember most strongly from the dance?” While the first question merely elicits personal or judgmental responses, the others encourage observations. Although an audience may respond either positively or negatively to a dance, it is more important to allow students to express critical opinions as part of the discussion process. Discussion of what aspect of a dance stays most strongly in the memory often reveals the choreographic choices at the heart of a work. Have students describe a memorable moment from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance in various ways—verbally, in writing, by drawing, or through movement. (1.1, 1.3, 1.4)

2. The Ailey performance can inspire a discussion about art and culture, especially for older students. Culture in this context represents the way of life of a group of people that includes the customs, values, beliefs, stories, and artistic expressions. The Ailey company is considered a cultural export or cultural ambassador for the United States. How does art transmit culture? Can the students find examples of cultural elements in the dances they saw at the NJPAC performance? How do these cultural elements represent America? Is it possible for any kind of art form to have no cultural references? (1.2)

*Numbers indicate the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standard(s) supported by the activity.

1. Dance can be a very effective way of communicating. For example, bodies are used to express and communicate before verbal communication develops. Many contemporary modern dance choreographers use everyday gestures in their work. Ask students to experiment with simple expressive movements (waving the hand, shrugging the shoulder, etc.) or a simple daily activity (reading, playing ball, eating, etc.). Then ask them to create transitions in between each everyday movement or activity. For example, after each movement gesture, add a turn, hop or skip to transition into the next gesture. These gestures and movements then become their dance. Next, have the students find a rhythm and sound to go with their movements. (1.1, 1.3, 1.4)*

2. “Why Dance?” is an arts integrated resource of Verizon’s Thinkfinity.org. In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from ARTSEDGE, students identify reasons why people dance. Centers are set up to research various kinds of dance. After exploring three centers, students create a dance, poem, report, or collage to explain why people dance. Artsedge.kennedy-enter.org/content/2319 (1.1, 1.2, 1.3)

VISIT US ONLINEFind additional resources online at artsed.njpac.org

In the Classroom

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Writers: Susan Thomasson Laura Ingoglia

Editor: Laura Ingoglia

Design: Pierre Sardain 66 Creative, Inc. 66Creative.com

NJPAC Guest Reader: Dajhia Ingram Maddox

NJPAC Teacher’s Resource Guide Review Committee: Judith Israel Mary Lou Johnston Amy Tenzer

Copyright © 2012 New Jersey Performing Arts Center All Rights Reserved

One Center Street Newark, New Jersey 07102Administration: 973 642-8989Arts Education Hotline: 973 353-8009artseducation@njpac.org

NJPAC wishes to thank Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for assistance in preparing this guide.

More Resources AcknowledgmentsBooks for Teachers and Students

Ailey, Alvin, and Peter Bailey. Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey. Replica Books, 2000.

DeFrantz, Thomas F. Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Jamison, Judith. Dancing Spirit. Doubleday, 1993.

Probosz, Kathleen Solomon. Alvin Ailey, Jr. Changing Our World. Bantam Skylark, 1992.

DVD/Videos

Beyond The Steps: Alvin Ailey. American Dance Theater. New Video Group, 2007.

Great Performances – Dance in America: A Hymn for Alvin Ailey. (Emmy Award-winning production choreographed by Judith Jamison)—available from pbs.org

Judith Jamison: The Dancemaker—available from pbs.org

Websites

alvinailey.org—Website of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

nypl.org/research/pa/dan/dan.html—The New York Public Library of the Performing Arts has one of the world’s greatest collections of dance-related books, videos, film, and other materials.

as of 01/18/12

NJPAC Arts Education programs are made possible by the generosity of: Bank of America, The Arts Education Endowment Fund in Honor of Raymond G. Chambers, Leon & Toby Cooperman, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, Amy C. Liss, McCrane Foundation, Merck Company Foundation, Albert & Katharine Merck, The Prudential Foundation, PSEG Foundation, Marian & David Rocker, The Sagner Family Foundation, The Star-Ledger/Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Verizon, Victoria Foundation, Wells Fargo, John & Suzanne Willian / Goldman Sachs Gives and The Women’s Association of NJPAC.

Additional support is provided by: Advance Realty, C.R. Bard Foundation, Becton Dickinson and Company, The Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, Allen & Joan Bildner, Bloomberg, Ann & Stan Borowiec, Jennifer Chalsty, Chase, Edison Properties, Veronica Goldberg Foundation, Meg & Howard Jacobs, Johnson & Johnson, The MCJ Amelior Foundation, The New Jersey Cultural Trust, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Novo Nordisk, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Pechter Foundation, PNC Foundation on behalf of the PNC Grow Up Great program, The Provident Bank Foundation, E. Franklin Robbins Charitable Trust, Roche, TD Charitable Foundation and The Blanche M. & George L. Watts Mountainside Community Foundation.

Find additional resources online at artsed.njpac.org or scan the QR code displayed here.

For even more arts integration resources, please go to Thinkfinity.org, the Verizon Foundation’s signature digital learning platform, designed to improve educational and literacy achievement.

VISIT US ONLINE

William J. Marino.……............................…………………………………………………………………….Chairman John Schreiber.............…....……..................…………………………………..President & Chief Executive Officer Sandra Bowie………….………........................……………………………………..Vice President of Arts Education Sanaz Hojreh.……………......................….……..………………………..Assistant Vice President of Arts Education Verushka Wray Spirito.............….………............………….........................…Associate Director of Performances Chamie Baldwin Graff.............….………............……………................…Director of Marketing, Arts Education Caitlin Evans Jones…………..........................……….………………………….…Director of In-School Programs Jeff Griglak......………......................……………….………………………………..……..Director of Arts Training Constance Collins........…….….........................Administrative Assistant and Office Manager for Arts EducationLaura Ingoglia…………........................….……………………....…………....Editor of Teacher’s Resource Guides Linda Fowler..…………........................…….…………………....…………....Editor of Teacher’s Resource Guides