Learning Objectives

• Experience a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater featuring Revelations, the company’s most famous work.
• Learn about Alvin Ailey’s legacy and the history of the company.

Education Standards Alignment

• DA: Re.7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
• DA: Cn.11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

Common Core Standards

• ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

(Social and Emotional Learning)

• Social Awareness (Recognizing strengths in others)

The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others; understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings; and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. Photo by Donna Ward.

What to Expect

Performance

• This program is approximately 60 minutes long and features excerpts from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s works, including Revelations.

Performers

• Dancers will use rhythm, movement, and facial expressions to communicate emotions and stories without words.
• Sometimes, one dancer is on stage; and sometimes, there is a group of dancers performing together.

Sound

• Sometimes, the music is loud and fast; and sometimes, it is soft and slow.
• Sometimes, the music is only instrumental. Other times, the music includes vocals.

Visuals

• Lighting and projected colors are used throughout the show to help set the mood of the choreography.
• Sometimes, there is general stage lighting. Other times, there is dramatic stage lighting and projection that use colors to emphasize the dancers and allude to where the dance piece is set (for example, using reds, oranges, and yellows to emphasize a hot day during a church congregation scene).
• Different props and costumes also help tell the story. For example, broad-rimmed church hats, fluttering hand fans, and wooden stools are used during the church congregation scene, “Move, Members, Move.”

Audience Interaction

• At the beginning of the program, the host may ask for audience participation from your seat. You may participate if you want.

What to Bring

• Please bring any tools that will help make the experience comfortable for you! Some suggestions are: noise-canceling headphones, sunglasses or visors, fidgets, and communication devices.

Look and Listen for

Alvin Ailey’s work celebrates the Black cultural experience and modern dance tradition, seamlessly blending the two. Dancers in the Ailey company are trained in different styles including ballet, modern, jazz, and hip hop. Their individual strengths and differences in style come together in what you see in an AAADT performance. Watch for:

• a fusion of African-influenced movements with ballet and modern dance that appear in Ailey’s choreography, including:
  • straight lines in the lower body with quick and sharp leg and foot movements (like in ballet)
  • a fluid upper body with expressive hands, arms, and torso movement (like in modern dance)
  • energetic dancing that emphasizes strength
• music from African American cultural traditions
• repeated movements and patterns
• the various jobs people have in a dance company
• shifts in movement based on the tempo of the music
• expressions of joy, sorrow, humor, and other emotions expressed through the two different pieces

Think About

• Alvin Ailey’s memories from his life played a huge role in developing his choreography. Which of your memories would you like to see as a ballet?
• Dance is often called a “movement language” because dancers use their bodies to tell a story and express emotion. How do you use your body to express how you feel?
• Think about all the different jobs there are within a dance company. Which one would you enjoy most, and why?
• What did you experience while watching the performance? What did you feel while watching each section?

Portrait of Alvin Ailey. Photo by Alexander Wilensky.

About the Artists

On March 30, 1958, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) performed for the first time at . Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African American dancers, that performance changed the perception (and look) of American dance. More than sixty years later, the company is considered one of the most successful arts organizations in the country. In fact, 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. In all, more than 235 works by over 90 choreographers have been part of the Ailey company’s repertory. And since that first performance, AAADT has gone on to perform for an estimated 25 million people at theaters in 48 states and 71 countries on six continents—as well as millions more through television broadcasts, film screenings, and online platforms.

About the Artform

What is dance? That’s a big question! Here’s an answer that’s short and sweet: Dance is an artform that uses movement to communicate our ideas, feelings, and experiences.

Dance can be broken down into the following five elements:

• Body
• Action
• Space
• Time
• Energy

These five elements are interconnected; at times, it’s hard to separate one from the other. Check out our resource Do You Wanna Dance? to learn more about the five elements and how each element can be manipulated to create different results.

Try It Yourself

Learn pieces of Alvin Ailey’s iconic choreography from your own home or classroom in this workshop presented by former company member and Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor for Dance Education, Hope Boykin. 

Kennedy Center Education

The Vice President of Education is generously endowed by the

Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.