Ailey (2021) Movie Script
1
The
John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts,
honoring Alvin Ailey.
Alvin Ailey has a passion
for movement that reveals
the meaning of things.
His is a choreography
of the heart,
drawing a whole new
public to modern dance.
Alvin Ailey is Black and
he's universal.
The very spirit that has
made him a Pied Piper
of modern dance.
And that's his genius.
Rehearsal now beginning.
Yes sir.
Hello.
Come on down!
So, we're embarking
on a longer work
that delves into aspects
of Mr. Ailey's life,
with the great storyteller,
Mr. Rennie Harris.
Hey, what's happening?
So yeah, we're
gonna do something,
we're gonna create.
Whatever it is,
it gotta be good.
You know, so...
All right, so Nina
and Millie gonna start
showing you guys
some of the movement
and what have you, yeah?
Okay, all right, cool.
Gonna start with irk and jerk.
Yeah.
Six, seven, eight, it goes.
Yeah, so you're
pulling that weight
over to the left, left,
and then right, right.
Five, six, seven, eight.
Go ha, ha, ha, ha.
Five,
six, seven, eight.
One more time and seven, eight.
Go ha, ha, ha, ha.
Robert Battle, just
called me out of the blue,
and said, I want you
to come do a piece
about Mr. Ailey for the 60th
anniversary of the company.
Here we go, top, six, seven,
eight, go off the floor.
Ha, ha, ha, ah, ah,
ha, ha, go,
six, seven, and eight.
And step tap, step tap,
step tap.
Yeah, yes.
The history of Ailey,
it's off the scale.
You know what I mean?
How do you present
something like 60 years?
Parallel if you can,
all right?
We're gonna start with
making a vocabulary.
If I can get the movement
out, I can create the story.
Yeah!
Two,
three, four, five.
I always felt the
dance was a natural part
of what I wanted to express,
that what I could do
with my body was a part
of a very important part of me.
And a way to release some
of those things in myself
that I had been looking for.
There it is.
Yeah, that's a nice clip.
Let's play that again.
I'm Alvin Ailey.
I'm a choreographer.
I create movement and I'm
searching for truth in movement.
For dance to me...
I just sit there
and watch, to find out
what made Mr. Ailey, Mr. Ailey.
Reflect life.
I choreograph.
Three, four, five, one, two,
four, five, loose fingers.
Show what's in your hand, yes.
Good.
The head accent there,
round pump, yes.
Four, five.
Sunday, January
17, 1988,
talking with Alvin Ailey.
Do you feel as though you
had to sacrifice anything
to stay in dance?
Everything.
Dance, it's an enormous
sacrifice.
I mean, it's a physical
sacrifice.
Dancing hurts.
You don't make that much money.
I mean, touring six
months out of the year
is disastrous on any kind of
personal relation.
It's a tough thing.
You know, you have to be
possessed to do dance.
I came to New York City in 1954.
I was a live and springy 24,
who loved to dance.
It was a catch-as-catch-can
dancer's life.
Everybody that I could have ever
dreamed of,
was here in New York City and
when I got here,
I immediately jumped into
classes
with all of them.
I studied with Martha Graham,
Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm.
But I was the usual rebel
and I
had my own ideas.
I had these creative fires
bubbling inside.
Dark, deep things.
Beautiful things inside me that
I'd always
been trying to get out.
My blood memories.
The memories of my parents,
uncles and aunts.
Blues and the gospel songs that
I knew from Texas.
I was born in the
Depression, 1931.
Tough times, rural country.
So, I made a dance
called "Blues Suite."
"Blues Suite" is a
reflection of that time.
The problems, but the romance.
We as a Black people have
made something fantastic.
The fact that Black people
get through.
Three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
and two, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
and three, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
and four, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight.
Okay, let's try this
group and this group here.
Still do what you do.
All right, five, six,
seven, eight, and.
One,
two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, and.
I want you pointing down.
Five, six, seven, eight, and.
One, two,
three, four, six, eight, and.
Mr. Ailey talked
about blood memories.
What his parents went through,
his parents' parents
went through,
what his folk went through.
And that was a major key for me.
Memory, that was the anchor.
I moved to Los Angeles
when I was 12,
at the beginning of
World Word II.
It was a vibrant, alive, a
different kind of environment.
When I was 14, I
discovered the theater.
Where I first saw the Ballet
Russe de Monte-Carlo.
And here was a new world.
It became my ritual then,
to come downtown.
I saw everything that came
along.
But there was nobody Black,
nobody to model oneself after.
And then one day, I saw
Katherine Dunham.
I couldn't believe that
here are Black people
on a legitimate stage.
I was just taken into
another realm.
And here was this unbelievable
creature.
And male dancers who were just
superb.
The jumps, the agility, the
sensuality
of what they did blew me away.
And the material.
What she was doing was
Afro-Caribbean.
It was blues, it was spirituals.
And it touched something
Texas in me.
But my gym teacher decided
that I should
be on the football team.
So he made me a right tackle.
And I said, "Coach, you know,
I have these people running
and knocking me down
and this is not gonna work."
He said, "What's wrong with you?
You some kind of a sissy?"
And I wanted to say, Yes!"
I saw Alvin in the
gymnastics class.
They had free exercises.
You know, it was
all slow motion.
It was more like
dancing, actually.
And he was beautiful.
But he didn't dare let
anybody know that he wanted
to be a dancer, because he
would be teased or humiliated.
But I told him, you
oughta be a dancer.
Alvin was this is the
kid who was handsome.
He was charismatic.
We became fast friends.
We went to parties together.
We were always in
each other's company.
And then realizing that we
both had an interest in dance,
that propelled me to follow
him to the Horton School
to watch his class with Carmen
and we walked
through those doors.
It's like you're going
into a different world.
. It was just a
complete education.
Lester taught us to
justify movement.
Not just to do a step but to
feel something about the step.
Not just to do a pli, but to
give it some kind of emotion.
Lester induced us to
to search and Alvin did.
He went to his resources.
He drew on his experiences
and that was his beginning.
I see the dancer
as the physical historian.
The dancer holds the
information from the past,
the present, and the future.
Why a particular movement
was relevant or important,
why it was valued
in my community.
They have this information
stored in their body.
If the Lord gets
ready,
Child, you've got to move.
The Lord gets ready, you got to
move.
You got to move, you got to
move.
Every Sunday, we were at church.
Praise God to the almighty.
Our beautiful Black songs from
the churches.
The joy of these people,
of my aunts and uncles
exploding in church.
It's something that
was always with me.
I remember there was this
procession of people
all in white.
They sang "Wade in the Water.
I came up with a
piece.
An evening long saga of the
Black experience.
I was moved to tears,
seeing "Revelations.
I was studying ballet.
I was studying modern dance.
And this was more of
a reenactment of life.
Here was something where
these were human beings
and they were dancing with joy
and passion and
anger and sorrow.
I thought to myself, wow.
This is what I wanna do.
Alvin entertained
my thoughts and dreams
that a Black boy
could actually dance.
It was a universe
that I could go into.
I could escape to, that
would allow me to do
anything that I wanted to.
All the familiarity
of my African American-ness
was all identified
in "Revelations."
The
narrative of church.
That was important to me.
What took me away was the
prowess and the technique
and the fluidity and the
excellence in the dance
that I saw.
In the dance.
That was the miracle.
I came to New York
to be in a ballet
called The Four Marys, with
the American Ballet Theater.
It was a wonderful
place to be in.
But when he Four Marys was over,
there were ho more positions.
You were very specially
a guest artist there.
You know, you could move
into this neighborhood
for a minute
but after you finished doing
your gig, please move out.
But what was coming next?
I did not know.
I was sitting on these
steps watching an audition,
and Judi was one of many girls
that inspired the set.
I couldn't help but notice her.
The length of the legs,
the feet,
the back, those arms, that head.
I said, "Oh my God, she's here.
I failed that audition so
miserable, I was so terrible.
And I ran up the steps,
and there was a man
sitting on the steps who I
couldn't even see who it was,
it was Alvin Ailey.
And he called me,
and asked me to join the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater.
Boom, that was it.
And, one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four
one, two, three
one, two three
one, two, one, two, one.
One, two, one, two,
one, two, one, two, one.
One, two, three, four.
Three, four, one, two,
three, four.
One, two, three,
one, two, one, two.
Dancing with Alvin was hard.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three,
one, two, three.
One two one two one.
- Great!
- Argh!
Good job.
Yeah, yeah..
Count 18 and then start.
He would give you that look.
You were wrong, you did
wrong, this is the look.
And that was Alvin.
He would say
things famously like,
"Would you do my choreography?
But he was also
terribly encouraging.
The exchanges that all of us had
were full of large embraces.
If he was talking to
you from 50 feet away,
you would feel that embrace.
You would feel that
comfort in knowing
that you could make an
absolute fool of yourself.
You know, you would feel safe
to extend yourself enough
so that you felt free.
Right.
I'm sorry to your left.
I love the idea
of people
coming and working together.
I loved the idea of the
discipline.
Open and settle your
break very quickly.
You and I, as
choreographers start
with an empty space
and a body or two
and we say "carve this space.
I love creating something where
there was nothing before.
Dance dilutes folk.
How it affects the body,
how it affects society,
and how it's healing.
As choreographers we are the
ones that are reaching out,
navigating the spirit.
Mr. Ailey,
he was the train moving to
spaces and shifting geographies
and people.
And we needed bullet train.
I wanted to do the kind of
dance
that it could be done for the
man on the streets,
the people.
I wanted to show the black
people
that they could come down to
these concert halls
that it was part of their
culture being done there.
And that it was universal.
The upcoming major, major
event
was like a the seven or nine
week tour of one-nighters
throughout the United States.
And Alvin was in a
frenzied state.
A friend of mine recommended
me as a stage manager to Alvin.
And I said, "How much
do they pay?
And she said, "Oh they
don't have any money."
I said, "Okay well
you know I'll volunteer
and let's see how it goes."
And right after that,
all of us, including Alvin
were on a bus.
One bus.
Costumes, lightning,
everything one bus.
The ladder was down
the center aisle.
The stools for "Revalations"
were underneath.
The luggage,
fans everything.
We travel six,
seven hours a day.
And you were doing
a state a night.
And you'd drive up, get there,
jump off and rehearse.
Perform, find some place to
eat after the performance,
and this was before
fast food really.
You know, we're like
truck stops, there we go.
Go to bed get up
the next morning.
Same thing all over
again in another town.
It was a multi-racial
company.
I was very concerned
about the treatment
arriving at a hotel, or motel.
I don't wanna hear anything
about we don't have any rooms.
One time in
Kirksville, Missouri
this hotel was
absolutely dreadful.
After the performance
the next day,
we passed the Holiday Inn.
And we were wondering,
why weren't we in that hotel?
I sent pictures and reviews,
to the hotels where
the company's going
so it won't be as surprise
when they get there.
I didn't want them to
have to go through that.
It was whirlwind,
when the tours came in.
The European tours, Paris.
London after that.
You had a very
great success last time,
in Holland hadn't you?
Yes we did.
This is our first performance
anywhere with the new group.
Are you nervous?
But of course.
In the studio
with me I have Alvin Ailey
the the artistic director
of the American Dance theater.
Thank you very much,
it's nice to be here.
The Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater,
is one of the most important
contemporary dance companies
in the world.
People were just, oh my God
they never seen
anything like it.
They loved the company,
they really did.
In Stuttgart, Germany
they wouldn't
let us off the stage.
It was about eighty some
bows that we had to do.
I've never seen
people, stand up,
take their shoes off
and hit the wall.
No matter what we did, those
people would not go home.
Take their shoes off,
bang on the wall chairs.
They were going to stay
there all night if possible.
They were wonderful times
because we were
kind of a family.
We all loved Alvin,
but we weren't around
Alvin during the day.
Seldom saw Alvin.
It was like, Alvin was
here, the company was here.
Something was
happening with him.
One time I came up onstage
and Alvin came up onstage
and he grabbed me and he
rolled up into the curtain.
The curtain we rolled up...
I say, "Alvin of what are you...
What is wrong with you?
He said, "I don't know,
I don't know."
It's like another person
inside the person.
It wasn't the Alvin that
we see all the time.
He needed a person
that he could talk to.
A partner or a someone.
Alvin did not have that.
He would have relationships,
but intermittent.
That kind of one-on-one
relationship, he didn't have,
except with his mother.
I was an only child,
also the same as Alvin
so I understood that.
My relationship was
always with the company
with the Ailey company,
that became family to me.
As it was to Alvin.
He had this idea
and this vision.
Alvin was driven to work.
We didn't have to go out
on the street and protest,
our protest was on the stage.
This was Alvin's art.
This is what he took
up as his crusade.
This is our march to freedom.
The death of Fred Hampton.
The police had just
broken into his apartment
in the middle of the night,
Shot him point blank range.
There was a photograph
in the newspaper,
of this young black man
in this tiny room,
like a rat with all these
police holes around him.
I mean, I can't get over that
I'm a black man living in this.
You know what I mean?
If you're being followed
by a search light,
if you're being
chased by the police.
Masekela came from
a very deep feeling
of you know, rage and
anger about the situation.
Nice.
Nice stop the music, would you?
Yeah, no.
Let's try the...
I want to feel like
you're in jail.
Like you're behind bars.
And I wanna feel all the
anger and the cutting.
I wanna feel like you've
being pressed down
when we take the arabesque.
I want to feel the sense of
cursing at the outside room.
Yeah, let's try it again.
Very difficult to
do on the floors.
Yes.
Choreography
was his catharsis.
And a lot of times I've felt
that even the woman in the
black dress was really him.
The character
he created on me,
dies in the arms of the patron.
And Alvin's saying,
"Thank you ladies
and gentlemen.
There was a deadly silence.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Fuck it, yeah.
You came here to be entertained.
But I have to tell my truth.
To me, it's not back then.
Everything I'm talking about
is actually happening today.
I'm still feeling the same
way as anyone would feel
if you felt like you were
unwanted as a culture.
Did mama have
something to do with you
going into dance or did
she support this?
When the the
dance bug bit me
she said, "You go and do
whatever you wanted to do.
You enjoy seeing
his company...
Oh boy he's the biggest
thrill of my life.
And he still has farther to go.
So that's why he's
just keeping on.
Mrs. Cooper, working
somebody's house cleaning,
and decide to go to Los Angeles
to make life for him.
You know that Alvin knows that.
The black women who
would encourage you,
who would be there always.
Who were so supportive that
you could not fail.
I get these images.
He would say things like
you're scrubbing floors,
you're tending a
baby, you're a queen.
I had no inclination
that this was dedicated
to all black women,
especially our mothers.
That that this was a
birthday gift to his mom.
But you could hear the
importance in the music.
The angst in her voice.
And you just survive inside
of what he's giving you
and what the music
is telling you.
You know, you live
in those moments.
Identity was a strong message.
Being able to say
through the choreography,
very very " was a "I am",
important theme,
that ran through the dances.
"I am."
Stand in your own
being no matter what.
It's very important to have that
because it transcends dance,
and it opens the person
to a new realization
or consciousness of
who they are
and how to be who they are.
That whole last section.
I didn't know how I did it.
I couldn't feel
it from here down.
I mean, it was like, okay
I know there's something
there holding me up,
and just plow on through it.
And when it comes
to that last step,
you dig down in there like
you have never dug it before.
No matter what others
may think of you,
this is who you are.
How important is that
to you to be able to say
through your movement,
through your being, I am.
Thunderous applause.
Alvin stood right next to me.
The curtain had been down
for a little bit and people
were still applauding.
I'm like dripping in sweat.
I'm going like, whoa
got through that one.
And he says to me, "Now what?"
Like what is he
going to do next?
What next?
You have the
anxiety of creating,
you have the euphoria, of a
creation being successful.
Alvin, I think he
took on too much.
Some say the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater
is the most innovative dance
company in the world.
Its popularity and
dazzling performances
have been experienced
by 10 million people,
43 States, 44 countries
on six continents.
My guest is the world
renowned choreographer
and artistic
director, Alvin Ailey.
Good to have you here.
Thank you, it's nice
to be here.
Alvin Ailey,
director of the
Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater who's just returned
from a very successful
tour in the Soviet Union.
We are adding
Mr. Aileys piece at...
Every fall, every spring time,
every season, there you are
at the mill, grinding it out.
The problem is that
if you're a black
anything in this country we
wanna put you into a bag.
People sometimes say well you
know, why is he doing that?
No why can't he stick to
the blues to the spirituals?
I'm also a 20th century American
and I respond to
Bach and Ellington
Denswell Britain,
and Simon Barber.
And why shouldn't 1?
So I don't like to be pinned
down as a choreographer.
Oftentimes isolated,
black creators are used.
Everybody used him.
As see, this is the
progress we're making.
See, we're not racist.
We have Alvin Ailey.
When you were
making "Revelations"
did you know that you'd
be doing it forever?
No.
Does it bother you?
In a way it does.
Isn't that strange? Maybe I
can't accept success because,
every time I see, I
see "Revelations now,
after all these
years, man since 1960,
I mean, I saw it in
Atlanta the other night
and everybody had come
to see "Revelations
and it still worked.
They wanted something that
they could feel uplifted by.
What about the troubled artist
who was often times turned in
and barbed, who is confused
and looking for form.
Looking for form.
Let's
go to the ballet.
You have this
creature, this wounded animal.
She's angry at herself.
She's angry at probably
at her creative forces.
She's angry at, like
all creative artists,
at not doing exactly with
herself what she wanted to do.
She's angry at the
society around her.
She's angry at the world
that that allowed this thing
to happen to her, whatever
it is she's allowed.
She's angry at the
weakness in herself.
This was a very
vulnerable thing to witness
but I saw him really
trying to go in search of,
I believe, what had probably
made him a choreographer.
He wanted a poetry.
Creation is a
very lonely place.
Lonely in the fact that
nobody can help you.
He was possessed and he
had to serve that god.
Alvin is very private.
I've worked with him long time
and he invited me to
his house only once.
He wanted to open up a door
for me to more close to him.
Somehow I feel I
wanted him to be up
had to put in a
pedestal?
I mean, I wanted him
to be there.
It's not the here with me.
Sometimes your name
becomes bigger than yourself.
Alvin Ailey.
Do you really know who
that is or what is?
You see a name, but
I don't see a man.
He was working at
a feverish pitch,
this stream of consciousness.
He was totally immersed.
He was exhausted
from trying to meet
the demands of the board,
the community everything.
Oh, do another ballet. Oh,
doing this. Oh do that.
He talked to me at
times about the company
not being the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater
it could be the
American Dance Theater.
And I remember saying to him,
what are you talking about?
Where are you going?
One day, my telephone
rang a voice said,
"you know, Alvin is running
around, throwing things around
and everybody has cleared
out of the office.
Alvin pushed the door open,
he just looked at me.
A look that I had never
seen from him before.
I said, "Alvin, what do you
want me to do?"
So he said,
"all I want you to do is
take care of the company.
So, I said,
"well, I am always going
to do just that.
You don't have to
worry about that.
Then he disappeared.
Alvin's not well.
I believe that there's
always something one's gift,
one's genius separates
one from his colleagues,
his community.
I believe that he had
that demon,
that demon that says that,
if I have gotten this far,
it's because I have pulled
one over on somebody
and that any day now I'm
going to be found out.
I think it's going to
something like a self-loathing
that comes with
not feeling worthy,
even though you've proven it.
If you look at Revelations
is one the great dances
of the 20th century.
Who could love him
or were they loving
what he represented.
His gift, his fame
what have you.
Who could love him.
He made a nice
duet for me.
It was so much fun.
I think he discovered
different way.
It's not a new
Alvin, but something.
Like a winter passed, you
know, took off the jacket.
See now if I had known
about this television thing
I would've done my
hair like yours Rodney.
I would have been up
until five o'clock
in the morning,
twisting and turning.
I just wash
it. I don't do anything.
You don't do
anything to it?
You did it yourself?
I don't do
anything, I just don't comb it.
No, I mean, how
did it get that way.
I just,
You twisted it.
No.
Rodney, how no,
no, no, no, no.
You're among friends.
- He wasn't letting go.
- And that was a good thing.
It was a sense of renewal.
The only direction to go
is forward into the future.
What
are the aims and goals
of the American Dance Theater.
To provide a place of
beauty and excitement,
a place where other
choreographers experiment,
to provide a place where,
where people can come and feel
like they can add themselves
and then reap benefits
of what they've put in.
I want it to be easier
than it was for me.
I had been invited to
come and make a work
for the Ailey Company.
Around this time, Arnie Zane,
my companion and I,
were already on the
cover of Dance Magazine.
Many people were saying
we were the flavor
of the month of the
downtown Avant Garde Dance.
We were doing something that
was often times improvisational.
And I think he wanted
some of that.
More than anything.
I think he wanted to stay
in touch with new
developments in the field.
And I'm proud to say
that he took me seriously
in that regard.
I remember him coming in and
seeing the rough housing,
gestural language of Fever
Swamp and him saying to me
something that moves
me very much right now.
He said, "don't
hurt my boys Bill,
don't hurt my boys."
When he said, boys it
meant that he loved them.
He loved them because
he was no longer lonely.
And he had actually been
given the wherewithal to open
up this field to people
like himself.
My boys.
All right so, I said,
"do you hear Michael?"
You're here. You're
facing this way.
Jackie is bringing
you here. Okay.
So here's the deal. You
guys are blades of grass.
You're black folk
Who've been murdered.
You become part of the soil.
And then the gatherer is
come and Step over you.
And they start gathering
the souls, right?
Putting, gathering them back
so they can regenerate, got me?
So that's, what's happened.
So, so this is slow.
Right, right.
Resurrection, every
time a dancer walks in.
There's another piece of
him being resurrected.
Mr. Ailey' was just watching
this whole cycle happen,
and helping to guide
helping to push through.
I was walking across
57th street and
I saw Alvin.
I said, "hi, Alvin,
how's everything.
He said, "it's all
right. It's all right."
But he didn't speak about
anything. It was like that.
So I said, "well, okay.
I hope to see you may I'll come
to the season. "Like that.
He just looked thinner
to me and a little drawn.
He wasn't reacting in a
way that I was used to.
People's appearances
were changing.
They were get thinner
and, and um,
and they were dying around you.
And I guess all you
could hope for
that it wasn't you.
And you prayed that it
wasn't anybody close to you.
Alvin wanted me to meet
him at this restaurant.
We were picking over stuff,
you know, this food that
I wasn't eating,
that he wasn't eating.
Both of us, knew what
we were there for,
but he had to declare it anyway.
He said, "would you
take over the company?
I had been told ahead of
time that he was very ill.
At that time people
were retreating
from saying anything about
AIDS related illnesses.
There were probably
people he would imagine,
they would react disfavorably
to having quote
this guilty disease.
This disease is in
some people's mind
you get what you deserve.
And we have loved
you all these years
and giving you this platform
to go out and do that dancing
and then, then look at your
dirty life and all this,
as we used to hear
when I was a child
what's done in the dark
will come to the light.
And I purposely
taking on the voice
of a Southern Baptist
because I'm sure,
be it that his mother, be
that many people around him.
There was this feeling
that, as I say
meh are men on the early
stage and women are women
on the early stage
and they are exemplary
and they are the survivors
of, of racism and slavery.
And they are beautiful
and they are strong
and they will live forever
and leap higher and higher.
Are you telling me
that they have sex
and they have sex
that could kill them.
You telling me
Mr. Ailey himself?
Oh, that's too much.
That's too much.
We have to edit that
out of the history.
And he participated in
the editing of it.
He was alone.
What community of gay people
was he with that could say,
"Alvin then this is
happening to us.
When he got ill, they
put a couch in the studio.
He wasn't really
working with us anymore.
He couldn't, but he
wanted to be around us.
So as opposed to lay at
home, he would just lay
in the couch or just kind
of lounge around them,
Just be with us.
There's a denial that you want
to have about your friend.
You always want to think
that could be a miracle.
Cause miracles do happen.
Some people do get better.
People do heal.
So it is possible.
It could happen, he
could pull through this,
miracles do happen.
Hey Alvin, what's
up. Now listening here.
You got to hurry
up and get better.
I'm waiting on you
because you know,
I'm trying to do this but
I need to be inspired.
I need your inspiration brother
you got to get out of here.
You understand what I'm saying?
Hi, we miss you hope you're
feeling better.
We want you to get
better so you can come back
and reprimand us again.
I remember we were opening on
December the third, I think.
And Alvin died
on the first.
Oh God, I wish he'd been able
to come to this opening
but we put on...
But I called George Faison.
I said, George.
That moved me a great deal.
I said, we've got
to celebrate Alvin.
And he put together a
wonderful performance.
And at the end, after
Revelations and bows
all of a sudden I had let
down a big picture of Alvin
and there's absolute
quiet in the theater.
The entire theater rose at once
and just quietly stood there.
And the dancers had been given
flowers and they all turned
and put them in front
of the Alvin's picture.
And we brought
the curtain down.
With the performance the
next night, we kept going.
Mr Aliey?
Mr Aliey!
You see in films that
people do.
And there's this
dramatic death rattle.
And goes like
like this.
Alvin breathed in and
never breathed out.
That was it.
We're his breath out.
We are his breath out.
We are.
Yeah, so that's
what, we're floating on.
That what we're living
on, the
The
John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts,
honoring Alvin Ailey.
Alvin Ailey has a passion
for movement that reveals
the meaning of things.
His is a choreography
of the heart,
drawing a whole new
public to modern dance.
Alvin Ailey is Black and
he's universal.
The very spirit that has
made him a Pied Piper
of modern dance.
And that's his genius.
Rehearsal now beginning.
Yes sir.
Hello.
Come on down!
So, we're embarking
on a longer work
that delves into aspects
of Mr. Ailey's life,
with the great storyteller,
Mr. Rennie Harris.
Hey, what's happening?
So yeah, we're
gonna do something,
we're gonna create.
Whatever it is,
it gotta be good.
You know, so...
All right, so Nina
and Millie gonna start
showing you guys
some of the movement
and what have you, yeah?
Okay, all right, cool.
Gonna start with irk and jerk.
Yeah.
Six, seven, eight, it goes.
Yeah, so you're
pulling that weight
over to the left, left,
and then right, right.
Five, six, seven, eight.
Go ha, ha, ha, ha.
Five,
six, seven, eight.
One more time and seven, eight.
Go ha, ha, ha, ha.
Robert Battle, just
called me out of the blue,
and said, I want you
to come do a piece
about Mr. Ailey for the 60th
anniversary of the company.
Here we go, top, six, seven,
eight, go off the floor.
Ha, ha, ha, ah, ah,
ha, ha, go,
six, seven, and eight.
And step tap, step tap,
step tap.
Yeah, yes.
The history of Ailey,
it's off the scale.
You know what I mean?
How do you present
something like 60 years?
Parallel if you can,
all right?
We're gonna start with
making a vocabulary.
If I can get the movement
out, I can create the story.
Yeah!
Two,
three, four, five.
I always felt the
dance was a natural part
of what I wanted to express,
that what I could do
with my body was a part
of a very important part of me.
And a way to release some
of those things in myself
that I had been looking for.
There it is.
Yeah, that's a nice clip.
Let's play that again.
I'm Alvin Ailey.
I'm a choreographer.
I create movement and I'm
searching for truth in movement.
For dance to me...
I just sit there
and watch, to find out
what made Mr. Ailey, Mr. Ailey.
Reflect life.
I choreograph.
Three, four, five, one, two,
four, five, loose fingers.
Show what's in your hand, yes.
Good.
The head accent there,
round pump, yes.
Four, five.
Sunday, January
17, 1988,
talking with Alvin Ailey.
Do you feel as though you
had to sacrifice anything
to stay in dance?
Everything.
Dance, it's an enormous
sacrifice.
I mean, it's a physical
sacrifice.
Dancing hurts.
You don't make that much money.
I mean, touring six
months out of the year
is disastrous on any kind of
personal relation.
It's a tough thing.
You know, you have to be
possessed to do dance.
I came to New York City in 1954.
I was a live and springy 24,
who loved to dance.
It was a catch-as-catch-can
dancer's life.
Everybody that I could have ever
dreamed of,
was here in New York City and
when I got here,
I immediately jumped into
classes
with all of them.
I studied with Martha Graham,
Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm.
But I was the usual rebel
and I
had my own ideas.
I had these creative fires
bubbling inside.
Dark, deep things.
Beautiful things inside me that
I'd always
been trying to get out.
My blood memories.
The memories of my parents,
uncles and aunts.
Blues and the gospel songs that
I knew from Texas.
I was born in the
Depression, 1931.
Tough times, rural country.
So, I made a dance
called "Blues Suite."
"Blues Suite" is a
reflection of that time.
The problems, but the romance.
We as a Black people have
made something fantastic.
The fact that Black people
get through.
Three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
and two, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
and three, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
and four, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight.
Okay, let's try this
group and this group here.
Still do what you do.
All right, five, six,
seven, eight, and.
One,
two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, and.
I want you pointing down.
Five, six, seven, eight, and.
One, two,
three, four, six, eight, and.
Mr. Ailey talked
about blood memories.
What his parents went through,
his parents' parents
went through,
what his folk went through.
And that was a major key for me.
Memory, that was the anchor.
I moved to Los Angeles
when I was 12,
at the beginning of
World Word II.
It was a vibrant, alive, a
different kind of environment.
When I was 14, I
discovered the theater.
Where I first saw the Ballet
Russe de Monte-Carlo.
And here was a new world.
It became my ritual then,
to come downtown.
I saw everything that came
along.
But there was nobody Black,
nobody to model oneself after.
And then one day, I saw
Katherine Dunham.
I couldn't believe that
here are Black people
on a legitimate stage.
I was just taken into
another realm.
And here was this unbelievable
creature.
And male dancers who were just
superb.
The jumps, the agility, the
sensuality
of what they did blew me away.
And the material.
What she was doing was
Afro-Caribbean.
It was blues, it was spirituals.
And it touched something
Texas in me.
But my gym teacher decided
that I should
be on the football team.
So he made me a right tackle.
And I said, "Coach, you know,
I have these people running
and knocking me down
and this is not gonna work."
He said, "What's wrong with you?
You some kind of a sissy?"
And I wanted to say, Yes!"
I saw Alvin in the
gymnastics class.
They had free exercises.
You know, it was
all slow motion.
It was more like
dancing, actually.
And he was beautiful.
But he didn't dare let
anybody know that he wanted
to be a dancer, because he
would be teased or humiliated.
But I told him, you
oughta be a dancer.
Alvin was this is the
kid who was handsome.
He was charismatic.
We became fast friends.
We went to parties together.
We were always in
each other's company.
And then realizing that we
both had an interest in dance,
that propelled me to follow
him to the Horton School
to watch his class with Carmen
and we walked
through those doors.
It's like you're going
into a different world.
. It was just a
complete education.
Lester taught us to
justify movement.
Not just to do a step but to
feel something about the step.
Not just to do a pli, but to
give it some kind of emotion.
Lester induced us to
to search and Alvin did.
He went to his resources.
He drew on his experiences
and that was his beginning.
I see the dancer
as the physical historian.
The dancer holds the
information from the past,
the present, and the future.
Why a particular movement
was relevant or important,
why it was valued
in my community.
They have this information
stored in their body.
If the Lord gets
ready,
Child, you've got to move.
The Lord gets ready, you got to
move.
You got to move, you got to
move.
Every Sunday, we were at church.
Praise God to the almighty.
Our beautiful Black songs from
the churches.
The joy of these people,
of my aunts and uncles
exploding in church.
It's something that
was always with me.
I remember there was this
procession of people
all in white.
They sang "Wade in the Water.
I came up with a
piece.
An evening long saga of the
Black experience.
I was moved to tears,
seeing "Revelations.
I was studying ballet.
I was studying modern dance.
And this was more of
a reenactment of life.
Here was something where
these were human beings
and they were dancing with joy
and passion and
anger and sorrow.
I thought to myself, wow.
This is what I wanna do.
Alvin entertained
my thoughts and dreams
that a Black boy
could actually dance.
It was a universe
that I could go into.
I could escape to, that
would allow me to do
anything that I wanted to.
All the familiarity
of my African American-ness
was all identified
in "Revelations."
The
narrative of church.
That was important to me.
What took me away was the
prowess and the technique
and the fluidity and the
excellence in the dance
that I saw.
In the dance.
That was the miracle.
I came to New York
to be in a ballet
called The Four Marys, with
the American Ballet Theater.
It was a wonderful
place to be in.
But when he Four Marys was over,
there were ho more positions.
You were very specially
a guest artist there.
You know, you could move
into this neighborhood
for a minute
but after you finished doing
your gig, please move out.
But what was coming next?
I did not know.
I was sitting on these
steps watching an audition,
and Judi was one of many girls
that inspired the set.
I couldn't help but notice her.
The length of the legs,
the feet,
the back, those arms, that head.
I said, "Oh my God, she's here.
I failed that audition so
miserable, I was so terrible.
And I ran up the steps,
and there was a man
sitting on the steps who I
couldn't even see who it was,
it was Alvin Ailey.
And he called me,
and asked me to join the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater.
Boom, that was it.
And, one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four
one, two, three
one, two three
one, two, one, two, one.
One, two, one, two,
one, two, one, two, one.
One, two, three, four.
Three, four, one, two,
three, four.
One, two, three,
one, two, one, two.
Dancing with Alvin was hard.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three,
one, two, three.
One two one two one.
- Great!
- Argh!
Good job.
Yeah, yeah..
Count 18 and then start.
He would give you that look.
You were wrong, you did
wrong, this is the look.
And that was Alvin.
He would say
things famously like,
"Would you do my choreography?
But he was also
terribly encouraging.
The exchanges that all of us had
were full of large embraces.
If he was talking to
you from 50 feet away,
you would feel that embrace.
You would feel that
comfort in knowing
that you could make an
absolute fool of yourself.
You know, you would feel safe
to extend yourself enough
so that you felt free.
Right.
I'm sorry to your left.
I love the idea
of people
coming and working together.
I loved the idea of the
discipline.
Open and settle your
break very quickly.
You and I, as
choreographers start
with an empty space
and a body or two
and we say "carve this space.
I love creating something where
there was nothing before.
Dance dilutes folk.
How it affects the body,
how it affects society,
and how it's healing.
As choreographers we are the
ones that are reaching out,
navigating the spirit.
Mr. Ailey,
he was the train moving to
spaces and shifting geographies
and people.
And we needed bullet train.
I wanted to do the kind of
dance
that it could be done for the
man on the streets,
the people.
I wanted to show the black
people
that they could come down to
these concert halls
that it was part of their
culture being done there.
And that it was universal.
The upcoming major, major
event
was like a the seven or nine
week tour of one-nighters
throughout the United States.
And Alvin was in a
frenzied state.
A friend of mine recommended
me as a stage manager to Alvin.
And I said, "How much
do they pay?
And she said, "Oh they
don't have any money."
I said, "Okay well
you know I'll volunteer
and let's see how it goes."
And right after that,
all of us, including Alvin
were on a bus.
One bus.
Costumes, lightning,
everything one bus.
The ladder was down
the center aisle.
The stools for "Revalations"
were underneath.
The luggage,
fans everything.
We travel six,
seven hours a day.
And you were doing
a state a night.
And you'd drive up, get there,
jump off and rehearse.
Perform, find some place to
eat after the performance,
and this was before
fast food really.
You know, we're like
truck stops, there we go.
Go to bed get up
the next morning.
Same thing all over
again in another town.
It was a multi-racial
company.
I was very concerned
about the treatment
arriving at a hotel, or motel.
I don't wanna hear anything
about we don't have any rooms.
One time in
Kirksville, Missouri
this hotel was
absolutely dreadful.
After the performance
the next day,
we passed the Holiday Inn.
And we were wondering,
why weren't we in that hotel?
I sent pictures and reviews,
to the hotels where
the company's going
so it won't be as surprise
when they get there.
I didn't want them to
have to go through that.
It was whirlwind,
when the tours came in.
The European tours, Paris.
London after that.
You had a very
great success last time,
in Holland hadn't you?
Yes we did.
This is our first performance
anywhere with the new group.
Are you nervous?
But of course.
In the studio
with me I have Alvin Ailey
the the artistic director
of the American Dance theater.
Thank you very much,
it's nice to be here.
The Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater,
is one of the most important
contemporary dance companies
in the world.
People were just, oh my God
they never seen
anything like it.
They loved the company,
they really did.
In Stuttgart, Germany
they wouldn't
let us off the stage.
It was about eighty some
bows that we had to do.
I've never seen
people, stand up,
take their shoes off
and hit the wall.
No matter what we did, those
people would not go home.
Take their shoes off,
bang on the wall chairs.
They were going to stay
there all night if possible.
They were wonderful times
because we were
kind of a family.
We all loved Alvin,
but we weren't around
Alvin during the day.
Seldom saw Alvin.
It was like, Alvin was
here, the company was here.
Something was
happening with him.
One time I came up onstage
and Alvin came up onstage
and he grabbed me and he
rolled up into the curtain.
The curtain we rolled up...
I say, "Alvin of what are you...
What is wrong with you?
He said, "I don't know,
I don't know."
It's like another person
inside the person.
It wasn't the Alvin that
we see all the time.
He needed a person
that he could talk to.
A partner or a someone.
Alvin did not have that.
He would have relationships,
but intermittent.
That kind of one-on-one
relationship, he didn't have,
except with his mother.
I was an only child,
also the same as Alvin
so I understood that.
My relationship was
always with the company
with the Ailey company,
that became family to me.
As it was to Alvin.
He had this idea
and this vision.
Alvin was driven to work.
We didn't have to go out
on the street and protest,
our protest was on the stage.
This was Alvin's art.
This is what he took
up as his crusade.
This is our march to freedom.
The death of Fred Hampton.
The police had just
broken into his apartment
in the middle of the night,
Shot him point blank range.
There was a photograph
in the newspaper,
of this young black man
in this tiny room,
like a rat with all these
police holes around him.
I mean, I can't get over that
I'm a black man living in this.
You know what I mean?
If you're being followed
by a search light,
if you're being
chased by the police.
Masekela came from
a very deep feeling
of you know, rage and
anger about the situation.
Nice.
Nice stop the music, would you?
Yeah, no.
Let's try the...
I want to feel like
you're in jail.
Like you're behind bars.
And I wanna feel all the
anger and the cutting.
I wanna feel like you've
being pressed down
when we take the arabesque.
I want to feel the sense of
cursing at the outside room.
Yeah, let's try it again.
Very difficult to
do on the floors.
Yes.
Choreography
was his catharsis.
And a lot of times I've felt
that even the woman in the
black dress was really him.
The character
he created on me,
dies in the arms of the patron.
And Alvin's saying,
"Thank you ladies
and gentlemen.
There was a deadly silence.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Fuck it, yeah.
You came here to be entertained.
But I have to tell my truth.
To me, it's not back then.
Everything I'm talking about
is actually happening today.
I'm still feeling the same
way as anyone would feel
if you felt like you were
unwanted as a culture.
Did mama have
something to do with you
going into dance or did
she support this?
When the the
dance bug bit me
she said, "You go and do
whatever you wanted to do.
You enjoy seeing
his company...
Oh boy he's the biggest
thrill of my life.
And he still has farther to go.
So that's why he's
just keeping on.
Mrs. Cooper, working
somebody's house cleaning,
and decide to go to Los Angeles
to make life for him.
You know that Alvin knows that.
The black women who
would encourage you,
who would be there always.
Who were so supportive that
you could not fail.
I get these images.
He would say things like
you're scrubbing floors,
you're tending a
baby, you're a queen.
I had no inclination
that this was dedicated
to all black women,
especially our mothers.
That that this was a
birthday gift to his mom.
But you could hear the
importance in the music.
The angst in her voice.
And you just survive inside
of what he's giving you
and what the music
is telling you.
You know, you live
in those moments.
Identity was a strong message.
Being able to say
through the choreography,
very very " was a "I am",
important theme,
that ran through the dances.
"I am."
Stand in your own
being no matter what.
It's very important to have that
because it transcends dance,
and it opens the person
to a new realization
or consciousness of
who they are
and how to be who they are.
That whole last section.
I didn't know how I did it.
I couldn't feel
it from here down.
I mean, it was like, okay
I know there's something
there holding me up,
and just plow on through it.
And when it comes
to that last step,
you dig down in there like
you have never dug it before.
No matter what others
may think of you,
this is who you are.
How important is that
to you to be able to say
through your movement,
through your being, I am.
Thunderous applause.
Alvin stood right next to me.
The curtain had been down
for a little bit and people
were still applauding.
I'm like dripping in sweat.
I'm going like, whoa
got through that one.
And he says to me, "Now what?"
Like what is he
going to do next?
What next?
You have the
anxiety of creating,
you have the euphoria, of a
creation being successful.
Alvin, I think he
took on too much.
Some say the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater
is the most innovative dance
company in the world.
Its popularity and
dazzling performances
have been experienced
by 10 million people,
43 States, 44 countries
on six continents.
My guest is the world
renowned choreographer
and artistic
director, Alvin Ailey.
Good to have you here.
Thank you, it's nice
to be here.
Alvin Ailey,
director of the
Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater who's just returned
from a very successful
tour in the Soviet Union.
We are adding
Mr. Aileys piece at...
Every fall, every spring time,
every season, there you are
at the mill, grinding it out.
The problem is that
if you're a black
anything in this country we
wanna put you into a bag.
People sometimes say well you
know, why is he doing that?
No why can't he stick to
the blues to the spirituals?
I'm also a 20th century American
and I respond to
Bach and Ellington
Denswell Britain,
and Simon Barber.
And why shouldn't 1?
So I don't like to be pinned
down as a choreographer.
Oftentimes isolated,
black creators are used.
Everybody used him.
As see, this is the
progress we're making.
See, we're not racist.
We have Alvin Ailey.
When you were
making "Revelations"
did you know that you'd
be doing it forever?
No.
Does it bother you?
In a way it does.
Isn't that strange? Maybe I
can't accept success because,
every time I see, I
see "Revelations now,
after all these
years, man since 1960,
I mean, I saw it in
Atlanta the other night
and everybody had come
to see "Revelations
and it still worked.
They wanted something that
they could feel uplifted by.
What about the troubled artist
who was often times turned in
and barbed, who is confused
and looking for form.
Looking for form.
Let's
go to the ballet.
You have this
creature, this wounded animal.
She's angry at herself.
She's angry at probably
at her creative forces.
She's angry at, like
all creative artists,
at not doing exactly with
herself what she wanted to do.
She's angry at the
society around her.
She's angry at the world
that that allowed this thing
to happen to her, whatever
it is she's allowed.
She's angry at the
weakness in herself.
This was a very
vulnerable thing to witness
but I saw him really
trying to go in search of,
I believe, what had probably
made him a choreographer.
He wanted a poetry.
Creation is a
very lonely place.
Lonely in the fact that
nobody can help you.
He was possessed and he
had to serve that god.
Alvin is very private.
I've worked with him long time
and he invited me to
his house only once.
He wanted to open up a door
for me to more close to him.
Somehow I feel I
wanted him to be up
had to put in a
pedestal?
I mean, I wanted him
to be there.
It's not the here with me.
Sometimes your name
becomes bigger than yourself.
Alvin Ailey.
Do you really know who
that is or what is?
You see a name, but
I don't see a man.
He was working at
a feverish pitch,
this stream of consciousness.
He was totally immersed.
He was exhausted
from trying to meet
the demands of the board,
the community everything.
Oh, do another ballet. Oh,
doing this. Oh do that.
He talked to me at
times about the company
not being the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater
it could be the
American Dance Theater.
And I remember saying to him,
what are you talking about?
Where are you going?
One day, my telephone
rang a voice said,
"you know, Alvin is running
around, throwing things around
and everybody has cleared
out of the office.
Alvin pushed the door open,
he just looked at me.
A look that I had never
seen from him before.
I said, "Alvin, what do you
want me to do?"
So he said,
"all I want you to do is
take care of the company.
So, I said,
"well, I am always going
to do just that.
You don't have to
worry about that.
Then he disappeared.
Alvin's not well.
I believe that there's
always something one's gift,
one's genius separates
one from his colleagues,
his community.
I believe that he had
that demon,
that demon that says that,
if I have gotten this far,
it's because I have pulled
one over on somebody
and that any day now I'm
going to be found out.
I think it's going to
something like a self-loathing
that comes with
not feeling worthy,
even though you've proven it.
If you look at Revelations
is one the great dances
of the 20th century.
Who could love him
or were they loving
what he represented.
His gift, his fame
what have you.
Who could love him.
He made a nice
duet for me.
It was so much fun.
I think he discovered
different way.
It's not a new
Alvin, but something.
Like a winter passed, you
know, took off the jacket.
See now if I had known
about this television thing
I would've done my
hair like yours Rodney.
I would have been up
until five o'clock
in the morning,
twisting and turning.
I just wash
it. I don't do anything.
You don't do
anything to it?
You did it yourself?
I don't do
anything, I just don't comb it.
No, I mean, how
did it get that way.
I just,
You twisted it.
No.
Rodney, how no,
no, no, no, no.
You're among friends.
- He wasn't letting go.
- And that was a good thing.
It was a sense of renewal.
The only direction to go
is forward into the future.
What
are the aims and goals
of the American Dance Theater.
To provide a place of
beauty and excitement,
a place where other
choreographers experiment,
to provide a place where,
where people can come and feel
like they can add themselves
and then reap benefits
of what they've put in.
I want it to be easier
than it was for me.
I had been invited to
come and make a work
for the Ailey Company.
Around this time, Arnie Zane,
my companion and I,
were already on the
cover of Dance Magazine.
Many people were saying
we were the flavor
of the month of the
downtown Avant Garde Dance.
We were doing something that
was often times improvisational.
And I think he wanted
some of that.
More than anything.
I think he wanted to stay
in touch with new
developments in the field.
And I'm proud to say
that he took me seriously
in that regard.
I remember him coming in and
seeing the rough housing,
gestural language of Fever
Swamp and him saying to me
something that moves
me very much right now.
He said, "don't
hurt my boys Bill,
don't hurt my boys."
When he said, boys it
meant that he loved them.
He loved them because
he was no longer lonely.
And he had actually been
given the wherewithal to open
up this field to people
like himself.
My boys.
All right so, I said,
"do you hear Michael?"
You're here. You're
facing this way.
Jackie is bringing
you here. Okay.
So here's the deal. You
guys are blades of grass.
You're black folk
Who've been murdered.
You become part of the soil.
And then the gatherer is
come and Step over you.
And they start gathering
the souls, right?
Putting, gathering them back
so they can regenerate, got me?
So that's, what's happened.
So, so this is slow.
Right, right.
Resurrection, every
time a dancer walks in.
There's another piece of
him being resurrected.
Mr. Ailey' was just watching
this whole cycle happen,
and helping to guide
helping to push through.
I was walking across
57th street and
I saw Alvin.
I said, "hi, Alvin,
how's everything.
He said, "it's all
right. It's all right."
But he didn't speak about
anything. It was like that.
So I said, "well, okay.
I hope to see you may I'll come
to the season. "Like that.
He just looked thinner
to me and a little drawn.
He wasn't reacting in a
way that I was used to.
People's appearances
were changing.
They were get thinner
and, and um,
and they were dying around you.
And I guess all you
could hope for
that it wasn't you.
And you prayed that it
wasn't anybody close to you.
Alvin wanted me to meet
him at this restaurant.
We were picking over stuff,
you know, this food that
I wasn't eating,
that he wasn't eating.
Both of us, knew what
we were there for,
but he had to declare it anyway.
He said, "would you
take over the company?
I had been told ahead of
time that he was very ill.
At that time people
were retreating
from saying anything about
AIDS related illnesses.
There were probably
people he would imagine,
they would react disfavorably
to having quote
this guilty disease.
This disease is in
some people's mind
you get what you deserve.
And we have loved
you all these years
and giving you this platform
to go out and do that dancing
and then, then look at your
dirty life and all this,
as we used to hear
when I was a child
what's done in the dark
will come to the light.
And I purposely
taking on the voice
of a Southern Baptist
because I'm sure,
be it that his mother, be
that many people around him.
There was this feeling
that, as I say
meh are men on the early
stage and women are women
on the early stage
and they are exemplary
and they are the survivors
of, of racism and slavery.
And they are beautiful
and they are strong
and they will live forever
and leap higher and higher.
Are you telling me
that they have sex
and they have sex
that could kill them.
You telling me
Mr. Ailey himself?
Oh, that's too much.
That's too much.
We have to edit that
out of the history.
And he participated in
the editing of it.
He was alone.
What community of gay people
was he with that could say,
"Alvin then this is
happening to us.
When he got ill, they
put a couch in the studio.
He wasn't really
working with us anymore.
He couldn't, but he
wanted to be around us.
So as opposed to lay at
home, he would just lay
in the couch or just kind
of lounge around them,
Just be with us.
There's a denial that you want
to have about your friend.
You always want to think
that could be a miracle.
Cause miracles do happen.
Some people do get better.
People do heal.
So it is possible.
It could happen, he
could pull through this,
miracles do happen.
Hey Alvin, what's
up. Now listening here.
You got to hurry
up and get better.
I'm waiting on you
because you know,
I'm trying to do this but
I need to be inspired.
I need your inspiration brother
you got to get out of here.
You understand what I'm saying?
Hi, we miss you hope you're
feeling better.
We want you to get
better so you can come back
and reprimand us again.
I remember we were opening on
December the third, I think.
And Alvin died
on the first.
Oh God, I wish he'd been able
to come to this opening
but we put on...
But I called George Faison.
I said, George.
That moved me a great deal.
I said, we've got
to celebrate Alvin.
And he put together a
wonderful performance.
And at the end, after
Revelations and bows
all of a sudden I had let
down a big picture of Alvin
and there's absolute
quiet in the theater.
The entire theater rose at once
and just quietly stood there.
And the dancers had been given
flowers and they all turned
and put them in front
of the Alvin's picture.
And we brought
the curtain down.
With the performance the
next night, we kept going.
Mr Aliey?
Mr Aliey!
You see in films that
people do.
And there's this
dramatic death rattle.
And goes like
like this.
Alvin breathed in and
never breathed out.
That was it.
We're his breath out.
We are his breath out.
We are.
Yeah, so that's
what, we're floating on.
That what we're living
on, the