*The name Alvin Ailey is synonymous with the artful celebration through dance of the struggles and triumphs of Black Life – in America and abroad. The New York-based company and its feverishly busy internationally traveling troupe have successfully walked the tightrope of being a repository of classic pieces that still speak – make that shout – a piercing relevance to now, while also embracing new works that speak to our reviviscent spirt and our vision of the future.
In “Ailey” (Neon Films), a new documentary by director Jamila Wignot, the study of the great choreographer’s work is but a small part of a story that is more focused on the man – a man who, in spite of insights from several peers and colleagues, remains as much a mystery after watching the film as before.
A priceless audio interview with Ailey lays the foundation for stories such as snapshots of his Texas youth, seeing dance for the first time as a youth in Los Angeles and instantly wanting to make it his life, and the support he received from his mother. But the film makes a troubling leap over crucial points of his ascension from amateur to professional, dancer to choreographer, west coaster to east coaster, etc. It is at this precise and early point in the film that we realize that Wignot is not as interested in career chronology as she is Ailey and his inner workings.
The problem is that most of what is revealed is speculative. With Ailey not being here, even those who worked with him day in-day out and year in-year out concede that he was an almost impossible man to get to know. His intimacies were few. Instead, we hear erudite discussion about the suffering it takes to create works of beauty, how a whole man can be buried under the brand that his canon as a successful choreographer can bring, and how Black artists tend to be pigeonholed by their blackness and never expected to seek creative inspirations beyond it.
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Ultimately, there is an overwhelming sadness at the undercurrent of all the due respect and celebration of Alvin Ailey here. It as if his plowing into 70 works in a 30-plus year career obscured a gaping hole in his personal life that went terribly unfulfilled. Worst, no one could imagine that was happening while he was here. It is only in hindsight that we see how glorious greatness in work too often leads to a lonely life otherwise. That Ailey, who was gay, struggled with mental illness in the latter years of his life and physically perished from complications of HIV/AIDS when its stigma was at its height also weighs heavy.
On the brighter side is the story of an early triumph of the now classic “Revelations” in Europe where, after a meagerly attended opening night, word of mouth spread to make it a resounding hit. Also poignant is dancer Judith Jamison telling how Ailey plucked her from an abysmal audition elsewhere and brought her to his company, seeing something in her that he knew was destined to shine.
In general, the heartfelt commentary by onscreen legends such as Carmen de Lavallade, Mary Barnett, Linda Kent, George Faison, Sarita Allen, Masazumi Chaya, Bill T. Jones and others do much to humanize the man while echoing his mastery. And the archival film and photographs are breathtaking to behold – capturing the rich history of the work and camaraderie of the company that shine as brilliant evidence of The Ailey Magic. Working with uber-focus on editing “Ailey” during the COVID-19 shutdown, Wignot, editor Annukka Lilja and archival producer Rebecca Kent created a powerful film worth watching.
However, the way the filmmakers chose to end this fascinating if frustrating piece rings well-intentioned but empty – a hip hop homage dance that would be more fitting a revival of “Fame” than the sobering biography at hand. Not that it should end on a sad note. Just one with closer ties to the stature of both the canon and the man.
As one subject profoundly stated in the piece, “A dancer is a physical historian. The information is in their body.”
(A. Scott Galloway is a freelance music journalist based in Los Angeles. Contact him via: [email protected])
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