Alvin Ailey’s revelations still invokes deep feelings

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – During 2024’s Black History Month, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., presented a dance concert by the well-known Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It’s dancers, all highly talented, performed three works, Century, choreographed by Amy Hall-Gerner, Me, Myself and You, by Elizabeth Roxas-Dubrish and Revelations, the immortal masterpiece, choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1960. Related Stories While watching the dancers do Revelations, one of the greatest dances created in the 20th century, I reflected on what Ailey said about it in his autobiography, Revelations, which I authored with him. “Revelations began with the music. As early as I can remember, I was enthralled by the music played and sung in the small Black churches in every small Texas town my mother and I lived in. No matter where we were during those nomadic years, Sunday was always a churchgoing day. There we would absorb some of the most glorious singing to be heard anywhere in the world. With profound feelings, with faith, hope, joy and sometimes sadness, the choirs, congregations, deacons, preachers and ushers would sing Black spirituals and gospel songs. They sang and played the music with such fervor they even as a small child, I cannot...