SWAPNA PRABHAKARAN speaks to Calvin Hunt about the upcoming visit to South Africa of the famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company
CALVIN HUNT does not stay in any one place for very long. As the general manager of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company, his job is to travel ahead to various countries, like a missionary spreading the word.
“I think of myself as a citizen of the world. I’m not a tourist. When I travel I get to meet the people of every country I go to, I get to work with them and get to know them a little bit. I bring the joy of the company everywhere I go.”
He’s a tall man, soft-spoken, with bags under his eyes and jet lag tugging at his face. The Ailey company is coming to South Africa in June, and for two days Hunt has had a whirlwind tour of dance venues in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Soweto, meeting his South African counterparts in contemporary dance.
Carrying a camera and a profound sense of pride in the company’s artistry, Hunt says his job is to spread the spirit of communication through dance.
In 1958 Alvin Ailey began the company for a small group of young black modern dancers to find cultural self-expression. Since then the company has grown to include a dance school to train black American youth and maintains a huge repertoire of diverse forms of dance, from tap and yoga to West African and ballet. Though Ailey himself died in 1989, his spirited belief in the uniqueness of minority dance in America lives on. Ailey once said: “The dance came from the people. It should always be given back to the people.”
In South Africa the company will hold intensive workshops and lecture- demonstrations for three weeks, for people in the city and the townships. Hunt says this is an integral part of what the Ailey company stands for. “I didn’t have any idea of what to expect of South Africa. I saw the townships, the rows and rows of shanties and I learnt that people built up these dance communities in such conditions. I was impressed that no matter what the surroundings, there seem to be people here seeking to dance.”
The dancers from the Ailey company will take part in the arts outreach programme and go into the Soweto dance schools to share and teach.
“The company isn’t a role model, exactly, but rather an example of what is possible in dance. All of this is one man’s dream. What we’re saying is that people do not have to make a set judgment about the way they dance or the way they see themselves. People who don’t dance ballet don’t have to be excluded from dance. They don’t have to put on a tutu.” Hunt shakes his head.
“I have encountered prejudice everywhere I go. There are people everywhere who don’t like black people, or don’t like the way we dance. Even in New York city, the mecca of dance, there’s this understanding that only ballet is `real dance’ and the rest of us aren’t real. People don’t mind paying money to watch ballet, because it’s considered `high art’. But we are fighting the establishment. Our popularity everywhere says to people: `Come and see – there’re many ways to express through dance, and you’ll probably enjoy our way more!'”
He has a scorn for any kind of dance that doesn’t get people emotionally involved. While the entertainment value of all Ailey pieces is high, there isn’t a single piece that doesn’t express some kind of emotion or tackle a form of storytelling about the struggles of a minority. Hunt says unashamedly: “All of dance is art, and you should enjoy art and be able to relate to it.”
He says the biggest thrill for him is to watch prejudiced people discover that they, too, can identify with the experiences of joy, sorrow, laughter and pain that the Ailey company dances about. “These people are often converted after an Ailey performance. They bring their families and friends in to see us. That’s a complete victory. I look at them and see that the company made them laugh and made them cry. We made them sing the songs and try out the steps … After a performance of the Alvin Ailey company, you are not the same. The dances identify us all as human beings. And human existence is the same everywhere.”
— The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre company will be in South Africa in June. They will perform at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg from Thursday June 19 to Sunday 29