Blood Memories, Spirit Dances

Abstract

In a commercially distributed video of his company made in 1986 by Thomas Grimm, Alvin Ailey alludes to the concept of “blood memories” as he introduces his most famous choreography Revelations (1960). Here is what he says:

“The first ballets [that I choreographed] were ballets about my black roots. I lived in Texas … until I was 12 … so I have lots of what I call blood memories … about Texas, blues and spirituals and gospel music, ragtime music … folk songs, work songs—all that kind of thing that was going on in Texas in the early ’30s, the Depression years. And I had very intense feelings about all those things. So the first ballets that I made when I came to New York were based on those feelings. … [As for Revelations,] all of this is a part of my blood memory: my uncles, my family, my mother, all were in these churches … very intense, very personal [stuff].”

Alvin has done what the old song tells us to do: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” He has let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

George Faison¹