Alvin Ailey's Legacy In Modern Dance

Alvin Ailey’s Legacy in Modern Dance
Alvin Ailey was one of the greatest choreographers of his time and his legacy still lives on through his techniques and his preeminent dance company. Despite racial issues growing up, he overcame them by building a successful career based on expressing his emotions of the life he lived as a child. After graduating high school, he learned from one of the greatest modern choreographers who came before him, later landed a job on Broadway, and then created his long living dances through his own dance company. His legacy lives in his ability to rise above racial discrimination and in his formation of a dance community open to people of all ethnicities and backgrounds. Born in Texas during the Great Depression, Ailey grew up in hardship while also facing racial issues in the South. Growing up with no father, his mother had to take on the breadwinner role as well as the caretaker role. Most of Alvin Ailey’s young life was characterized by him …show more content…
The following year he joined Horton’s dance team (“Alvin Ailey Biography”). Ailey learned modern dance from the great choreographer and he developed a love that would soon turn into a career. When Ailey was 22, Horton sadly passed away, and left Ailey briefly in charge of the company. He would spend his time taking extensive notes on how the Horton technique was taught in the studio so he could be as successful as Horton himself in teaching the dancers. Soon his success would take him to New York. He began his career by performing on Broadway in the show House of Flowers. His Broadway performances brought him to stardom, made him more money than he had ever had, and connected him with many other talented dancers. He had a home to himself, finalizing his life of poverty. He also had many friends that shared his passion for dance. He soon grouped them together to begin choreographing dances of his own (Dunning