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Dancing Ambassadors: U.S. Exports Change Lives Abroad
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11223 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1993 |
1,938 Words |
| Author
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Camille Hardy
Camille Hardy is a New York-based critic who publishes and
broadcasts on the arts internationally. |
Within the "think global, act local" mandate of the 1990s, two dance companies have become particularly significant cultural ambassadors for the United States. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT)--the riveting modern troupe whose repertoire is rooted in the African American experience of its founder--presently earns approximately one-third of annual revenues abroad. The Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), the innovative classical ensemble under the artistic direction of Arthur Mitchell, completed a history-making visit to South Africa last fall and has a long track record on international circuits. Aesthetically, these two companies could hardly be more different from each other. But they share two important aspects: Both are multicultural institutions that maintain rigorous artistic standards, and the two are dedicated to the belief that the arts are a most powerful conduit for opening hearts and minds to shared understanding around the world.
Agents of Change
"The arts have always been the agents of change," says Mitchell, "because of the visionary capacity of creative individuals. Yet they are a healing balm as well, allowing spectators to appreciate cultural differences through the transformation that occurs on both sides of the footlights during a great performance."
Michael Kaiser, executive director of the Ailey organization, also points to the commonality of audience response to his company's appearances all over the world. The glittering panache of the Ailey dancers regularly arouses screaming cheers, stamping feet, and standing ovations from viewers. Such is to be expected during the group's annual four-week home season at New York City's Center Theater. "The funny thing is," observes Kaiser, "that we get that same response at the more staid English National Opera House in London, at the Paris Opera--even in Israel and Japan." Performed with great exuberance and intensity, the Ailey repertoire strikes universal chords, and the warmth of the dances seems to empower theatergoers.
Also, the Ailey ensemble is not "new" in many countries--it has thirty-one-years' experience dancing on foreign stages. "When we play Tivoli in Copenhagen, for example, it's like a homecoming," Kaiser attests, "and Germany is becoming a familiar venue." In 1962, four years after Alvin Ailey established his company, he was invited by the U.S. Department of State to take the dancers on their very first tour, not a domestic route but to the Far East. Billed for much of the trip as the De Lavallade-Ailey Ballet (Carmen De Lavallade and Ailey
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