David and I are planning on going to Alvin Ailey in Detroit. I know very little about dance and even less about famous dance superstars. Lots of information about Mr. Ailey death at 58 from AIDS, very little information about personal life.
I always imagine gay men who are successful in the arts would have fulfilling personal lives. After all homosexuality is the normal in many of the these fields. This doesn't appear to be case with Mr. Ailey. He spent most of his life hiding his homosexuality. This is from the encyclopedia of gay, Lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer culture
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/ailey_a,2.html
However, his personal and professional lives were dogged with problems. Abused by lovers, he seemed in later life to enjoy the company of street hustlers. Similarly, he entrusted management and money matters to people who victimized him.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater did not secure a permanent home and stable management until 1979, when the company and school moved into splendid facilities in the Broadway theater district of Manhattan. But by this time, Ailey had become erratic. He was addicted to cocaine, increasingly crippled by arthritis, and dependent on lithium as a mood regulator.
Like many men of his generation, including Jerome Robbins, for example, Ailey was deeply ashamed of his homosexuality. For years, he refused to consider writing an autobiography because "my mother wouldn't like it." When he finally did collaborate on an autobiography, it was sexually sanitized, notwithstanding the fact that it was to be published posthumously. To spare his mother the social stigma of his death of AIDS in 1989, Ailey asked his doctor to announce that he had died of terminal blood dyscrasia.
Although the choreographer could sincerely dance "I've been 'buked and I've been scorned," he nevertheless managed to celebrate the beauty of his heritage and translate his pain into art. His ballets embody his aspirations for all-encompassing love and compassion. They still rock the soul of a worldwide audience.
Its sad that such a talented man could not come to term with his sexuality.
No comments:
Post a Comment