Alvin Ailey Cry Essay Example

helping escaped slaves travel from southern plantations to the North. This covert system, known as the Underground Railroad, gained strength in the 1830s. While there are varying estimates, it is believed that this complex network helped free approximately 40,000 to 100,000 enslaved people.

The Underground Railroad's effectiveness led to the spread of anti-slavery beliefs in the North and increased tensions between different regions. It also sent a powerful message to southerners that people from the North were dedicated to dismantling slavery. The 13th Amendment officially ended slavery in 1865, but even with this significant milestone, freed slaves faced difficult circumstances and encountered many obstacles during the Reconstruction era.

Former slaves were given citizenship rights and equal protection under the 14th Amendment, as well as the right to vote according to the 15th Amendment. Nevertheless, these rights were often ignored or violated, and former slaves encountered difficulties in assimilating into the economy after the war. These challenges were exacerbated by oppressive laws, discriminatory actions, and unfavorable agreements such as sharecropping.

Despite the significant role played by black individuals in American politics during the Reconstruction period, their experience ultimately proved disappointing for African-Americans. The progress made was overshadowed by the resurgence of white supremacy in the South, exemplified by the rise of racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. By 1877, this resurgence had succeeded. It would take nearly a century for resistance against ongoing racism and discrimination that originated during slavery to ignite the civil rights movement of the 1960s. This movement would then lead to the most significant political and social advancements for black people since Reconstruction.

Alvin Ailey created the dance piece Cry, using this context as

inspiration. The timeline of his composition reflects various stages, with the addition of emotion. Emotion engages the audience, causing reactions like empathy, and lets them see the journey of the African-American woman, symbolizing the journey of all those involved in the slave trade. Question 2:

Alvin Ailey's Cry utilizes the elements of dance to engage the audience in a powerful journey. The solo dancer, wearing a white leotard and long ruffled skirt, represents women who have overcome slavery, loss, and depression. Beginning at the back of the stage, this placement emphasizes her significance and foreshadows her journey. With her face initially hidden, she holds a white cloth as a symbol of pride. As the piece progresses, she becomes enveloped in the white fabric, highlighting the oppression faced by black women. The contradictory elements in Cry are immediately evident to the audience from the beginning.

Despite her struggle, the woman in the performance remains composed and strong, as she contracts her torso and moves through the space. She expresses her confinement by beating her fists in the air and utilizing levels and dimension. The use of open and closed shapes in the performance enhances the themes of pride and dignity, while also representing the constraints she faces. These contrasting elements create atmospheric tension and captivate the audience in Cry.

As tension increases, the audience quickly tries to comprehend and address this issue. In the first section, we witness the woman's collapse onto the ground followed by intense movements near the cloth, which weighs her down, causing convulsions and grounding her. Displaying mostly subdued and moderate intensities, along with contrasting sustained and vibrating or percussive motions, the woman reaches

out to engage with the audience, eliciting emotional connections. Her desire for liberation and determination face suppression through the movements that symbolize various concepts.

The dancer rises upright, enveloping herself in the fabric and treading on it, fastening herself to the floor. These introspective, restricted actions communicate to the spectators the dancer's fight, especially when coupled with a multitude of concrete and abstract motions. The audience witnesses her battle against both the symbolic representation of the floor as her labor and the expectations imposed upon her to labor, as well as the literal concept of being tied down and specifically the African-American woman's struggle to overcome.

The woman persists in pulling the cloth above her head, symbolizing her determination to free herself and maintain her pride and dignity. In section one, the dancer follows various rhythms at a moderate tempo. The metre serves as a rhythmic foundation for the dancer and seamlessly transitions between the main melody and the background music, as shown in the choreography. The fast-paced and intricate rhythm creates tension, highlighting the complexity and depth of the performance that the audience can observe.

In the second section, pain and sorrow are evident as the dancer's movements take on angular shapes and convey literal interpretations of the lyrics. The dance begins with the dancer thrusting her skirt to the side while placing her hand on her hips, standing en face to assert her power. However, she eventually crumbles, revealing the vulnerability hidden beneath her facade. The lyrics of the music emphasize the struggle the dancer is going through. Interestingly, unlike the preceding and following sections, the choreography and music are reversed in this section.

This enables the movements to complement the music rather than the other way around.

The choreography assists the musician in depicting the arduous journey and yearning for freedom amidst the loss of comrades. The dancer portrays the act of inserting a needle into her skin in slow motion to emphasize "dying slow." Additionally, the choreography suggests a more enduring and consistent energy while also utilizing the space and incorporating different levels to illustrate the gradual empowerment of the African-American woman. The viewers are able to perceive the direction in which the performance is headed, and the combination of a slower pace and less pronounced shifts in dynamics captivate the audience, drawing them into the narrative.

The primary focus of the journey has shifted from action to the expression of emotions felt by those who experienced slavery. The cloth remains on the front of the stage, serving as a constant reminder of white supremacy and the dominance of black people. The section suddenly transitions into feelings of pain and anger, which are not inherent in the movements but can be seen as a motivational factor as the music's tempo increases. The dancer returns to center stage, symbolizing her impending freedom through a series of turns.

The dancer starts from the center and moves towards both sides of the stage. She performs percussive weight shifts, symbolizing weakness. Later, she repeats a previous movement of crumbling to the ground in a vibratory manner, further expressing weakness. This section represents an individual's escape on an Underground Railway. The section concludes with the dancer reaching out to the audience, walking slowly in a circle, until she gives up her pride upon reaching her

destination and overcoming oppression.

The final part of the performance features large, open shapes, spinning movements, high levels, and aerial patterns accompanied by a fast-paced music piece. As the woman moves diagonally across the stage, she demonstrates her dominance and connection with the audience. The choreography in this section exudes femininity as the dancer utilizes her long ruffled skirt as a prop rather than a hindrance, which was evident in previous sections. This part emphasizes the power of freedom and the character's unrestricted movement. The dancer falls to her knees, clasps her hands together, raises them above her head, throws them backwards, and effortlessly rises up again.

In this section, the tension built in the composition is relieved for the audience. The dancer has resolved the contradictory elements and increased consistency in the use of dynamics, space, and time. The conclusion of the composition is simplified with uniform concepts. The dynamics become solely percussive and vibratory, and the tempo remains consistently fast-paced. The metre is simplified and the rhythm is regular rather than syncopated. This ensures that the audience understands the piece.

After experiencing and understanding the emotions of the dancer in the previous section, the audience is enlightened to find that the problem presented at the beginning of Cry has been resolved and the tension has been released. The dancer concludes by repeatedly throwing and waving her hands around her head and torso in a circular motion, while stamping her foot against the ground. However, after a slow fade into nothingness, the dancer disappears from the screen.

The cloth remains on the ground at the front of the stage, indicating the overwhelming dominance of white supremacy. The dancer

starts and ends the performance in the same spot, possibly suggesting a lack of progress. Ailey may be reflecting the emotions experienced by black people until the start of Reconstruction, as the composition mirrors the historical context. Despite being declared free, challenges for the slaves were just as arduous after slavery was abolished, due to the effects of discrimination.

Cry challenges the idea of freedom by showcasing the dancer's disappearance and highlighting the subsequent dominance of white power. The white cloth serves as a symbol for this shift. Ultimately, Cry captivates the audience through its use of tension, plot, and resolution, drawn from dance movements. The use of Space, Time, and Dynamics invites the audience to become immersed in the performance and gain a deeper understanding of the socio-historic context behind its creation.