Edges of Ailey

Adrienne Edwards, Horace D. Ballard, Harmony Bench , Kate Elswit

$103.95

Hardback

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English

Yale University Press
03 April 2025

A revelatory look at the life, work, and legacy of the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey

""A rich, multitudinous window into the world of the choreographer Alvin Ailey. . . . It does everything but dance.""—Leah Greenblatt, New York Times

Alvin Ailey is one of the most celebrated choreographers of the twentieth century. The creator of iconic works such as Blues Suite, Revelations, and Cry, he is widely recognized for the dance company he founded in 1958 when he was just twenty-seven years old. Ailey imagined and cultivated a platform for modern dance through his innovative repertoire, interdisciplinary sensibility, and support of dancers and choreographers. This expansive volume situates Ailey within a broader social, creative, and cultural context, looking at the artists who influenced and collaborated with him, the spaces and scenes he frequented, the dynamic themes within his dances, and how his vision and work changed contemporary dance.

Essays by artists, scholars, and critics cover topics ranging from the Black church, the South, and the Great Migration to nightclubs, musical influences, and queerness. With more than four hundred images including photographs of works Ailey choreographed, archival materials such as notebooks, sketches, letters, and never-before-published behind-the-scenes photos, and conversations about the legacy of the company with Sylvia Waters, Judith Jamison, and Masazumi Chaya as well as several contemporary dancers and scholars, this study offers an unprecedented full picture of one of the twentieth century's leading artists and the way his work continues to inspire today's generation of dancers.

Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

(September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025)

Contributions by: Horace D. Ballard, Harmony Bench, Kate Elswit, Aimee Meredith Cox
Edited by: Adrienne Edwards
Imprint: Yale University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 311mm, Width: 235mm,
ISBN: 9780300278842
ISBN 10: 0300278845
Pages: 388
Publication Date: 03 April 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Adrienne Edwards is Engell Speyer Family Senior Curator and Associate Director of Curatorial Programs.

Reviews for Edges of Ailey

“Lovely as a companion piece to the current Whitney Museum exhibit or on its own, Edges of Ailey offers a rich, multitudinous window into the world of the choreographer Alvin Ailey with essays, photographs and personal papers; essentially, it does everything but dance.”—Leah Greenblatt, New York Times, “Holiday Gift Guide 2024” “As museum catalogs go, this one is a browser’s treasury. One needn’t read anything—or even be an English-language speaker—to enjoy it. . . . My favorite essay in the book [is] ‘dear alvin,’ by choreographer, historian, and erstwhile Ailey archivist Thomas F. DeFrantz—a stunningly honest and deeply personal direct address to Ailey himself.”—Mindy Aloff, Liber