Alvin ailey

Alvin Aliey Like many great dance choreographers, Alvin Ailey is one of the greatest and well known choreographers there is. I chose to to do my research on this man because i am very familiar with his name and know current dancers and choreographers who attend his dance school. Hearing about Ailey since i was twelve years old, i always wanted to know more about him but never took the initiative to do so. So here, in this biography i will explain to you what i have learned and researched about this famous dancer. Early Life In Alvin Ailey’s early life, he was born to his mother Lula Elizabeth Ailey, January 5, 1931 in Rogers, Texas. Lula was only seven-teen years old when Ailey was born.Growing up, Ailey was only surrounded by his mother, he was a boy who grew up without his father. His father’s name was also Alvin Ailey. Big Ailey left Little Ailey when Little Ailey was just a baby; when he was less than one years old. Ailey and his mother lived during the time of the great depression, racial segregation, violence and lynchings against African-Americans. They were a African-American family of two who belonged to the poor social class. Because of this, they moved around very often and his mother always had a hard time finding work. At an early age, Ailey became suddenly afraid of the caucasian kind. At five years old, Ailey watched a group of white men rape his mother right in front of him. Ever since then, Ailey feared white people. According to DeFrantz, in the fall of 1942, Ailey's mother, in common with many African Americans, migrated to Los Angeles, California, where she had heard there was lucrative work supporting the war effort. Ailey, aged 11, joined his mother later by train, having stayed behind in Texas to finish out the school year. There in California, Ailey's first junior high school was located in a primarily white school district. Being in a predominately white school, Ailey felt alone and out of place because of