Hi,everybody here,
I am a tyro of dance and need your help. A lot of pepole here have viewed the Alvin Ailey's Cry or Revelations, Can you give me a description of the dance movements, costume, lighting? I mean, my teacher request me write a review of this show, but I don't know how to start it at all, even I can't understand it . Can you help me ? Thank you so much.
My email is nancy_mli@yahoo.com

I'm not clear on whether you've seen the piece, but that's the first step...

A review needs to be from your heart - what you saw and how you can put that down on paper. It's not always easy; sometimes you have to start writing, even if it doesn't all make sense and the ideas will come once you have the words on paper.

One way to start by going to the Alvin Ailey website (www.alvinailey.org) - there is information there on the ballets, images and even a short video clip from "Revelations". Sometimes seeing images or video from performances can help spark your memory and your writing.

Kate

Definitely, you must see it, live if possible.

What's a tyro?

OK, I'll say one thing. In my understanding, Revealations brought the black church experience to the dance stage. The more you understand about African-American Christianity, the better you will understand Revealations. I noticed when I watched it that many of the audience members responded AS IF they were in church, TOTALLY different behavior from your typical ABT audience!

If you haven't done so already, I would go visit a black church with a good gospel choir. Try to stay more on the traditional end of things; remember, Revealations was created in the 1960's, and a lot has changed in African-American worship styles.

Finally, you must understand black theology. This is a theology of survival under violent oppression (for 300 years), and of God's eventual deliverance from that oppression. It is a theology of waiting on God for that deliverance... waiting, waiting, waiting. It is a theology that comparies the ancient Hebrew experience of slavery, and God's response to it, to the modern African-American experience of slavery. Remember that deliverance did not come with the formal end of slavery in 1865; instead, it came almost 100 years later with the civil rights movement. And that was about the time that Revealations was produced. So you must also understand the history of Civil Rights era.

With all that, then you will understand Revealations.

Hi, I'm moving this to the Modern Dance forum if you don't mind (the shadow topic in the Issues forum will be deleted in about a week).

Alvin Ailey talks about “Revelations” here:

http://www.worldwidedanceuk.com/content ... oryID=1244

If you haven’t seen “Revelations” and "Cry" (or if you need to refresh your memory) you can buy – or possibly rent, at a library, “An Evening with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (1986)”:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ance&s=dvd