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Inside the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble
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15922 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1989 |
2,201 Words |
| Author
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Maya Wallach
Maya Wallach is a dance writer, critic, and photographer
currently based in Los Angeles |
The Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (AARE) is a professional dance company acclaimed in tours from New England to Ohio to the Caribbean, yet its first goal is to prepare its members for a career in dance, and it teaches its lessons the hard way.
Alvin Ailey formed the repertory ensemble in 1974 as a place for the most talented students of the Ailey School to experience firsthand the pleasures and pitfalls of dancing and touring full time. The schedule and repertory are as demanding as those of his primary company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), although the venues are smaller.
Still, it would be misleading to say the repertory ensemble dancers feel any less pressure. Personal commitment and ambition spur dancers more forcefully than any audience or critic, and AARE dancers are--if anything--more obsessed and consumed by their career than are older, more seasoned dancers.
The director of the company, Sylvia Waters, a former Ailey dancer herself, understands firsthand the fragility of the dancer's world. She never thought of leading a company until Ailey invited her to direct the fledgling AARE in 1974. "I was appalled, initially," she remembered, but it took her only twenty-four hours to decide that it might be a good match. Fifteen good years have proved her correct.
Creative Organizer
Unlike Ailey and many other artistic directors, Waters is neither choreographer nor teacher. She is an organizer: Waters selects talented dancers and
... (1999 of 12665 Characters)
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