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America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: the First 100
Born in Rogers, Texas, Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) began his dance training as a teenager in Los Angeles with Lester Horton. In 1954 he made his Broadway debut in House of Flowers. Other Broadway shows followed, as well as appearances with Sophie Maslow, Anna Sokolow, and Donald McKayle. In 1958 he choreographed Blues Suite, inspired by memories of his Texas boyhood; two years later, with Revelations, he created a beloved modern dance classic. Ailey's best works drew on African-American traditions and subject matter. Masekela Language (1969), with a score by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, depicted broken, weary lives in a roadside cafe, while Cry (1971), the solo dedicated to "black women everywhere" that made Judith Jamison a star, was set to gospel music. In the 1970s Ailey choreographed several works to music by Duke Ellington, a favorite composer. Founded in 1958 as a repertory ensemble for modern dance classics along with new works by Ailey and others, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre became one of the country's outstanding companies as well as a showcase for African-American talent. Ailey died in 1989 due to complications from AIDS. www.alvinailey.org Founded in 1940 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant as a showcase for American-trained classical talent, American Ballet Theatre (or Ballet Theatre, as it was known until 1957) is today one of the world's outstanding companies. ABT's repertory has always been eclectic. This was especially true during the 1940s, when the company produced a host of modern works, including such classics as Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire, Agnes de Mille's Fall River Legend, and Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free. A new chapter in ABT's history opened in 1966 with David Blair's staging of the full-length Swan Lake. His Giselle followed in 1968, and in 1971 Erik Bruhn restaged La Sylphide. The refurbished repertory brought a galaxy of new stars to ABT, including Cynthia Gregory, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gelsey Kirkland, and Natalia Makarova, who added La Bayadère to the company's offerings, while postmodern choreographer Twyla Tharp scored a hit with Push Comes to Shove. During the 1980s, when Baryshnikov served as artistic director, The Sleeping Beauty entered the repertory, along with Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. Under his successor, Kevin McKenzie, a new generation of stars has come to the fore, including an exciting contingent from Latin America. www.abt.org
Televised locally and nationally for thirty-seven years, American Bandstand brought dance into living rooms throughout the United States and, with "perpetual teenager" Dick Clark, spurred viewer participation to record levels. A late-afternoon television dance party, the 1952 show originated as Bandstand in Philadelphia with Bob Horn. Clark subsequently joined as host and on August 5, 1957, ABC-TV began national Monday-through-Friday broadcasts that were viewed by millions of teenagers and housewives, who instantly assimilated the latest fads in dance and music. Coast-to-coast fervor was created for the Twist in the early 1960s, and the show gave widespread exposure to disco during the 1970s. Throughout the glory years of the sixties, American Bandstand was the hot venue for presenting young singers and initiating the newest dance crazes. In 1987 the program entered the Guinness Book of World Records as television's longest running variety show, but was off the air by September 1989. A changed pace had been set by MTV, which began broadcasting on August 1, 1981.
The American Dance Festival, heralded by Clive Barnes in the New York Post as "the world's greatest dance festival," has been an unparalleled center of creative activity and a national force in education for over seventy years. Noted as "the country's foremost and most enduring organization devoted to creativity in American modern dance," by Anna Kisselgoff in The New York Times, ADF is celebrated for its vision and commitment to the promotion, presentation, and preservation of modern dance. Since 1934 ADF has remained committed to commissioning works, to serving the needs of dance, dancers, and choreographers, and to enhancing appreciation of modern dance. ADF has been the scene of over 535 premieres and commissions. A creative laboratory dedicated to nurturing and sustaining modern dance, ADF is a magnet for choreographers, dancers, students, teachers, critics, musicians, and scholars, drawing them together to experiment, collaborate, learn, and create in a supportive environment The ADF School is among the oldest training grounds for professional and young modern dancers and ADF's wide range of programs currently includes performances, national and international professional services, humanities projects, community out-reach, educational programs and classes, preservation efforts, archives, and media projects. www.americandancefestival.org
Fred Astaire (1899-1987) brought perfectionism to work as a dancer and choreographer on vaudeville and Broadway stages, shaped standards for filming dance as a star of Hollywood musicals, and made notable contributions to television. He began a vaudeville career at six as partner to his sister Adele. The young duo soon earned $150 per week in an era when normal pay was less than ten dollars. A top hat and cane were hallmarks, almost from the beginning. Making a transition from vaudeville, the Astaires appeared in ten Broadway productions between 1917 and 1932, including Lady Be Good (1924), Funny Face (1927), and The Band Wagon (1931). When Adele left the stage to marry, Fred had his first solo success on Broadway in Cole Porter's Gay Divorce (1932). During 1933 he played a small dance role in his movie debut, Dancing Lady with Joan Crawford. Later that year he starred in Flying Down to Rio, which assured his position in Hollywood. Astaire's extraordinary musicality and theatrical imagination gave distinctive shape and emotional resonance to his dancing, expressed in 212 musical numbers on film. His insistence that the camera follow choreographic flow, while sustaining dance continuity, established a model for using the medium in the service of the art. Charles "Cholly" Atkins (1913-2003) began his career as a singing waiter in 1929 and formed a vaudeville act, known as "Rhythm Pals," with William Porter. When the team folded, Atkins joined the Cotton Club Boys, who were appearing with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson at New York's 1939 World Fair. The class act formed with Honi Coles lasted through the 1950s and was described as "picture dancing," or "pretty-as-a-picture" movement, in which the slow precision of two dancers sounds like one. When the entertainment market changed, Atkins became a choreographer for Motown Records (1965-1971). He created and coached acts for dozens of artists, including the Temptations, Supremes, Cadillacs, and Aretha Franklin. His work with singers became a specific genre known as "vocal choreography." During the 1980s revival of interest in tap dancing, Atkins won a Tony award for his choreography in Black and Blue (1989). In 1993 he received a three-year, National Endowment for the Arts choreographer fellowship to record his memories, to collaborate on an autobiography, and to tour college and university campuses, holding classes and seminars.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine (1904-1983) was the foremost choreographer of the twentieth century and the architect of classical ballet in America. His influence on all aspects of technique, choreographic style, music, costume, lighting, and stage design has been far-reaching; no one has done more to change the look and physique of the female dancer than he, or attain for the choreographer something akin to parity with composer. Balanchine was heir to two great legacies: the Franco-Russian tradition embodied in the works of Marius Petipa and Saint Petersburg's Imperial Ballet, in whose school he trained; and the experimentalist tradition associated with Serge Diaghilev, under whom Balanchine served his choreographic apprenticeship. In 1933 at the invitation of Lincoln Kirstein he settled in New York, where they founded the School of American Ballet and, after several unsuccessful attempts, the New York City Ballet. Balanchine choreographed hundreds of ballets. Some were modern in style, others traditional. Many abjured narrative and scenery, and were performed in practice clothes. All revealed his profound understanding of music. His collaboration with Igor Stravinsky resulted in masterworks such as Apollo (1928), Orpheus (1948), and Agon (1957). Through his teaching and choreography, Balanchine extended and refined classical technique. His dancers were known for their speed, clarity, and articulate footwork, all of which now define American classical style. www.nycballet.com/about/nycbgbbio.html
Balasaraswati (1918-1984) was a native of Madras and personified the Tanjore interpretation of bharata natyam, a classical dance style from South India. At her debut as a seven-year-old, she was admired for pure technique and facility with abhinaya or expressive mime, attributes that continued to be praised throughout her lifetime. Balasaraswati was the seventh generation in her family to be associated with classical dance and music. She was trained initially by the eminent Kundappa Pillai who, with his brothers, codified a training system for dancers. An affinity for mesmerizing audiences made Balasaraswati a veritable ambassador for bharata natyam outside India, appearing first in 1961 in Tokyo, launching her earliest North American tour in 1962 at Jacob's Pillow, and performing at the Edinburgh Festival in the following year. As a teacher and artist in residence, she was associated with several American universities and with the Balasaraswati School of Music and Dance in Berkeley. At home in India, she received many awards, including the title Exemplary Golden Lotus, usually received by outstanding statesmen and scholars. The American romance with ballet of the 1930s and the ballet boom of the 1940s owed more to the Ballet Russe than homegrown classical efforts. Beginning as Colonel Wassily de Basil's Ballets Russes, the company, which subsequently split and changed names, made its first whistle-stopping tour in 1934. Months were spent on the road, bringing glamour and snippets of the classical repertory to audiences in every state. The companies—at one point there were two crisscrossing the country—had wonderful stars, such as Alexandra Danilova and the trio of "baby ballerinas," Irina Baronova, Tatiana Riabouchinska, and Tamara Toumanova, who captured headlines. There was a strong tradition of character acting, and in the ballets of Léonide Massine, which dominated the repertory of the 1930s, a commitment to dramatic values. By the 1940s the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo had become home to numerous Americans, many dancing under Russian names. George Balanchine, who became artistic director in 1944, Americanized the company even further, by featuring dancers like Maria Tallchief who later became the nucleus of the New York City Ballet. Although much diminished as a creative force, the Ballet Russe continued to tour until 1962, when it danced its last performance.
Born in Latvia, Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948- ) studied at Leningrad's Vaganova Institute under Alexander Pushkin. In 1967 he made his debut with the Kirov Ballet and soon revealed the technical mastery and stylistic refinement of a danseur noble. In 1974 he defected from the Soviet Union and joined American Ballet Theatre, where he danced all the great classical roles, formed a luminous partnership with Gelsey Kirkland, and starred in Twyla Tharp's crossover ballet Push Comes to Shove. In 1980, after a brief stint with the New York City Ballet, he became artistic director of ABT. During his tenure, which lasted until 1989, he upgraded the corps, restaged various classics, and commissioned works from innovative choreographers, such as Mark Morris and Choo San Goh. In 1990 he formed the White Oak Dance Project, a concert group with an eclectic repertory of modern dance works. The greatest male dancer of his time, Baryshnikov has starred in movies and television specials, demonstrating the versatility and appeal of his art. 
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