Dance essay on all three works This essay looks to discuss the works of Alvin Ailey and Christopher Bruce. Revelations 1960, Cry 1971 and Swansong are the three works to be conversed.

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Dance essay on all three works

This essay looks to discuss the works of Alvin Ailey and Christopher Bruce. Revelations 1960, Cry 1971 and Swansong are the three works to be conversed.

Revelations 1960 creates a picture of African American history; it communicates to us as an audience, portraying a political view on African American slavery. Ailey manages to show us the life’s of these slaves through the use of racial related, themed songs and gestural movement; ‘Take me to the water’ is a section in the dance by which we are able to acknowledge the daily routines of these slaves and the extent of the poor living conditions they were subjects of, ‘Wade in the water’, for example show’s how the slaves had to travel to the riverside to get water each day; in terms of movement, Ailey has used unison to show that these people were all in the same position and were all after the necessities; it represents the idea that the queue for the water each day was huge. ‘I wanna be ready’ is another song used by Ailey to set the mood and signify an overall message; it stresses just how strong these individuals were to have survived and soldiered through such terrifying and retching conditions.

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Ailey refers to this work as ‘blood memory’ it is created by using fragments of his Texas childhood, struggling to fit in to a place where he was deemed an outcast. Moreover, ‘Revelations’ creates a narrative of African American release from slavery; it contains waterside baptism and is to some extent very communal. Alvin Ailey specifically used folk material to appeal to several audiences. This work allows us to see clear images of class, gender and sexuality. Another huge issue this dance concerned itself with was cultural representation; in particular, a representation of black subjectivity without any query towards ...

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