American dance theater Alvin Ailey presents "Lazarus" for its 60th anniversary: ​​NPR

After the death of dance pioneer Alvin Ailey in 1989, the future of American dance theater Alvin Ailey was uncertain. It is difficult to keep a dance company profitable after the death of its founder – many have tried and failed. Thirty years later, the group is in full swing and decides to celebrate its 60 years and its founder by ordering a new book entitled Lazarus.

The company chose choreographer Rennie Harris, who formed the first and longest-running hip-hop dance tour company to create this one-hour play. The first artist-in-residence of American Dance Theater Alvin Ailey, Harris was commissioned to create the company's first two-act play. His previous contributions to the contemporary dance company include Stories of love and Home.

Harris' first company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, traveled the world and was selected as a citizen diplomat from the US State Department's DanceMotion USA in 2012. The Philadelphia native has also received various awards, including the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. , and has been elected one of the most influential people in the last 100 years of Philadelphia's history.

American dance theater Alvin Ailey Lazarus was created in late 2018 in downtown New York. The company is currently traveling to the United States to perform this birthday coin until its last regional stop in Newark, New Jersey on May 12th. Lazarus is inspired by the experiences of Ailey who grew up in Texas at the time of Jim Crow and presents a troupe of 15 people that takes the audience across the racial inequalities that Ailey has faced from while still alive, some of which are still in the news.

"The goal was to find out how to give people a sense of slavery … I wanted the whole scene to be a body, you know," Harris told NPR's Michel Martin in a statement. interview for All things Considered. "I could not have that look, so we did a little bit like we had done it slowly … And then migrating with them on their knees moving like cattle across the space like again [was] this poignant moment. "

Highlights of the interview

On the way he started professionally

Like most African Americans, we started at home with the family, you know. So I could not really tell when it was, because I just know that I did it. And I did it throughout my childhood. I mean, I went straight to the professional after my 14/15 years. And I started meeting people who asked me to do what's called, the fried fish, the bazaar, the talent show, open for the talent show in the church and I would be paid. And so I'd have some guys and … we'd dance, well, you know, we get $ 50 and we share $ 50. It was like $ 10 each and as we thought we arrived. We thought we were done, because you know, they had asked us to do it, we would have done it for free.

On the cultural and political nature of his work

Movement is the last manifestation of our reality, is not it? Our action defines who we are. Often, we like to think that our words are, you know, oh, "I'm that kind of person". That sort of thing. And really it's an action. We know that a person loves us because of the action that she takes to show us, right? And so, the same thing when it comes to dancing like an action no? Would you dance so if you really want to know what, why this movement, or style, or movement as a whole, the cultural movement is important or relative. Then you want to study what was going on politically, economically and socially at that time. And anyway, the expression, the physical expression, is embodied – and this is the last manifestation of what a person can feel.

On creation Lazarus

So, after I've stopped to panic about it, I'm fine, so I'm really focused. You know, let me understand this thing, there are three parts: 20 minutes, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, just think that way. Spend the first 20 minutes, we're fine. Then I could understand the other 40. So it was the first goal and I thought in the same way that I wanted to fight against slavery. Slavery, post-slavery and civil rights. And because I found it interesting, you know that everyone talked about Mr. Ailey, you know, even though the works I saw on him, they talked about it to the man and I wanted to say show what was happening around him and how he had forged vision through it all.

On the creation of this play while racist and anti-Semitic groups parade in public on the streets

Well, I think you know, I jumped on the platform. You know, Alvin Ailey is coming soon, that automatically brings people in and they are not expecting that kind of thing that will make it relative to today. For example, when you see this in my opinion, you have to think about what is going on today, you can not ignore it. And when you witness it, you are now responsible. You now have a responsibility. I always tell my students, as you know, "After this class, after this class, you will be responsible."

Why he thinks that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has survived so long

People want change and I think they sometimes need a little nudge or a little nudge and a reminder. And I think you know, because it's not just American history, it's a global story. I mean, we are talking about spirit and travel and this represents for me a global story. But I think you know people when they ask for that American story that's really what they want and that's the inspiration they need for themselves. And you see it around the world. People do it. However, we are not enough, you know, many of us have a great intention and we want it, but we are so afraid of losing that we are stuck and we lose the idea of ​​fear and lose that feeling. , that butterfly sensation that is physically in your body when you're scared, when you lose that, then I think we'll be more progressive as a planet, but we're afraid of losing.

NPR digital content trainee Lindsey Feingold produced this story for Digital. Eliza Dennis and Natalie Winston have produced and edited this story for broadcast.