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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2007)
BY RACHAEL CARNES "IRTHDAY -ARCHô ôôô/&& ô ôô!,,ô#HILDRENSô"OOKS -ARCHôô ô ô 1 6 ,-/9Ê"Ê", " #00,4503& ô%ôTHôrô ôrô5/"OOKSTORECOM SHOES RIGHT HERE GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES IN LANE COUNTY x USE UNCLE SAM’S REFUND TO GO BUY SHOES! BR GET ING T AN HIS A ADD D I ITIO N & YOU NAL R E NTI R 10% O E P FF URC ! HAS E! Converse Chuck Taylor: Everyday Price $28.99 Reg. Price $39 ALL BACKPACKS - $12 ★ SHOES ★ SOCKS ★ HATS ★ ★ BACKPACKS ★ CLOTHES ★ COME SEE US at our booth at the MAIN STREET PLAZA 1820 Main St. • Springfield • Th - Sun • 11-7pm MON-THU: 10-6 • FRI-SAT: 10-7 • SUN: 11-5 811 WEST 6TH AVE. EUGENE (6TH & MONROE) LOCALLY OWNED• 343-SHOE (7463) 32 MARCH 1, 2006 Oh, Rock-a-My-Soul Bill T. Jones brings dignity to the Hult A rt has its Mona Lisa. Music has its fifth sym- phony. And modern dance has “Revelations,” a mas- terwork by one of the most impor- tant contributors to dance in our time: Alvin Ailey. This piece, a ge- nius subterfuge of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, modern technique, the- atrical costuming and set work, consistently strikes a universal chord. This is the Mohammed Ali of dances, recognized and beloved the world over. “Revelations,” along with a selection of Ailey’s other works, will be performed at the Hult by Ailey II, the Ailey School’s younger company, under the di- rection of the inimitable Sylvia Waters. Ailey II began as a work- shop initiated by Alvin Ailey in 1974 in which Ailey handpicked the Ailey School’s most promising scholarship students as members, and these technical and artistic wunderkinds have been touring internationally ever since. Ailey II comes from a good background. Born the son of cot- formance made by ton pickers in Rogers, Texas in Ailey II people of diverse 1931, Alvin Ailey was a dancer, 7:30 pm • Thur., March 8 backgrounds and choreographer and director and Hult Center • $15-$50 shades, presented studied with dance giants Lester for plural audi- Horton, Martha Graham, Hanya 682-5000 ences. Holm and Charles Weidman. After When I was a young dance student, one Horton’s death, a young Ailey filled some of my college professors had worked with big shoes at the helm of Horton’s company. Ailey in the same companies, and I loved He premiered as a performer in New York to hear her stories about those early days: in 1957, and in 1958 he formed the Alvin “We were all broke, living in New York. Ailey American Dance Theater. His cre- But we were making dances.” ative work paralleled his signature move- Fifty years after Ailey got his start, not ment style: Graceful, larger than life, with much has changed in this nation’s perform- a consistently dynamic dialogue between ing arts: Budgetary constraints threaten richly lyrical gesture and unhooked rhyth- companies and venues, directors choose mic energy. whether to costume or to present a show, In his memoirs, Ailey recounts the mo- tours dwindle, educational programs ment of realization when he came to grips wither, dancers live without health insur- with maturing as perhaps the most disen- ance or benefits and most of them, even in franchised citizen imaginable: He came professional companies, go on forced un- from a racist and impoverished South, he employment at various times throughout was gay, he was black, and as a teen, to his the year. As a metaphor for this unwaver- horror, he realized that his calling was as a ing artistic scrappiness, look for the richly dancer. From the first, he wasn’t afraid to inventive stage designs Ailey pulled to- use his art to comment on his world. gether on the cheap for “Revelations”: Ailey’s earliest works, “Blues Suite” and White parasols transform the stage to cre- “Revelations,” directly confront the pat- ate a community gathering, fabric slices terns of poverty and racism. But he doesn’t horizontally to make an ocean and simple hammer you over the head. He uses music wooden stools facilitate the longest “sit” in — traditional gospel music and spirituals, dance history. jazz, blues — the music that quenched the Like any performing artist in economiz- parched Depression era Texas of his youth. ing America, Ailey never outpaced money He uses humor and emotional engagement concerns, nor did he completely outrun the to pull you in. It’s performing art in its gnawing effect of the racism that had sur- most integrative, social form. rounded his childhood. But between hope Summarizing Ailey’s canonical stature and anger, he made dances that are res- poses a challenge. His work punched olutely poignant and remarkably accessi- through the ceiling and built ten more ble. As Ailey said, “Dance is for every- floors, demolishing barriers of race, reli- body. I believe that the dance came from gion, sexuality and culture. Alvin Ailey the people and that it should always be de- was lead architect of dance’s 20th century livered back to the people.” paradigm shift: Legitimated dance per- ew EDUARDO PATINO #ELEBRATE
