As a choreographer I find myself inspired by the energy and spirit around faith and ideas of peace. So when I was asked to re create A Soulful Celebration using the same recordings as last year, I sought to create a presentation that translated ideas of faith and peace through a concept of dancing that was informed by the historical contributions of black dance makers and their effects on the evolution of concert dance. Much in the same way the the Jones/ Warren recordings were conceived. The music being faith based, historically European and now reflecting African musical elements. What i then realized i was dealing with, was an expression of the evolution of African American musical tradition. This idea led me to closer investigation of the lives of dance makers who regularly used these themes in their work, some of them being Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, Jawole Willa Jo Zoller, Ron Brown, and Alvin Ailey. Probably the most famous faith based Dance Is REVELATIONS by Alvin Ailey.
When Alivin Ailey presented REVELATIONS on January 31st 1960, He released into the universe an expression of faith and community that would one day be performed in more places around the world than quite possibly anyother dance ever made. For those of us who are familular with this work It is easy to see why it has captivated audiences for over 40 years. Alvin placed on the stage a way of moving that was quite clearly the physical manifestation of his own personal experience as American, Black, and Male. A fusion of culture, intellect, spirit, and faith. A movement style that carried his residual past forward into the present moment with great urgency and a vast presence. Jennifer Denning wrote in "Alvin Ailey a Life in Dance" that "Revelations was and remains the work of a community, from the larger worlds of black Americans to the worlds of the individual dancers who helped create REVELATONS and passed it on to later generations. REVELATIONS was created for and by a band of friends, men, women, whose professional lives were, in effect, a work of hopeful activism."
Alvin Ailey was not the only choreographer doing this kind of work. Pearl Primus, Katherine Dunham, and Donlad McKayle were either contemporaries or mentors to Alvin Ailey and were regularly presenting work that infused culture, intellect, spirit and faith. Likewise the choreographers for A Soulful Celebration have created work that translates their personal ideas of faith and peace into dances of celebration, calling upon the culture of today and honoring the work of the past. The Goal was not to recreate history, or re-make dances but use the history of this tradition to focus the energy of the dancing to reflect the choreographers relationship to the music, and to provide the dancers an oppertunity to have a more personal performance experience.
For me, A Soulful Celebration's purpose is made perfectly clear in the compositions first movement Overture: A Partial History of Black Music, and it was the composition I was most drawn to and the conceptual foundation for the rest of the show. When listening to this composition I hear the evolution of the Black American historical experience, Feel it in my body, and See it in my own history and understand American society at present. The Overture begins with the sound of the spirit of God on cricket legs, a tribal drum echoing in the night, and the shaking rattle of a high priest or priestess, gathering the community for celebration and communion with the earth, air, water and fire. Next, an explosion of energy rich with rhythm and texture, as the pounding drums and chirps are ultimately silenced. As this story of sound unfolds I feel the pull of sailing slave ships and the weight of the captives they carry to the new world, to the fields, this unwilling Diaspora crying the pain of separation from land, from families, from identity. From this melody of pain will raise a great and beautiful tradition, a tradition of resilience. As the score segues through post slavery/ pre civil rights America and on to the Ragtime era and the days of Scott Joplin, I hear the blending of horns and piano as heralds of change, small steps and a few back steps blending together and resting for a moment as we reach the big band era. Onward the composition charges staying true to the melody of the original Overture, each section continuously acquiring elements from the section before it re-inventing itself over and over tracing the evolution of blues, gospel, acid jazz, R & B, funk, hip hop and house music. It is a viscerally emotional experience for me every time. These are the ideas and experiences that have been a central part of my choreographic work and i feel they have found a nice home here.
For me this composition not only celebrates Black America's history it goes so far as to celebrate America's Black History as not only an anthology of struggle, acceptance, resilience and artistry, but a history filled with shared experiences and the true purpose of creativity... healing. This composition does yell at you, it screams at you in a not so quiet desperation until you get it and I rejoice in this way of living through action and praise for our collective existence on Earth. ASHE' ASHE' ASHE' I offer a West African word from the Yorba tradition meaning: the creator, the love, the spirit, the joy the god within, a word that carries for me the same understanding and energy as Hallelujah and Amen and rejoices in a life full of soul.
jhon r. stronks
Director Met Too
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