SchoolTime Study Guide - Cal Performances - University of ...

The Inspiration for RevelationsRevelations began with the music. As early as Ican remember I was enthralled by the music playedand sung in the small black churches in every smallTexas town my mother and I lived in. No matter wherewe were during those nomadic years, Sunday wasalways a church-going day.With profound feeling, with faith, hope, joyand sometimes sadness, the choirs, congregations,deacons, preachers, and ushers would sing blackspirituals and gospel songs. They sang and playedthe music with such fervor that even as a small child Icould not only hear it but almost see it. I tried to putall of that feeling into Revelations.Creating the DanceAbout Revelations (excerpts from the autobiography of Alvin Ailey)The opening part of Revelations was about tryingto get up out of the ground. The costumes and setwould be colored brown and earth color, for comingout of the earth, for going into the earth. The secondpart was something that was very close to me—thebaptismal, the purification rite. Its colors would bewhite and pale blue. Then there would be the sectionsurrounding the gospel church, the holy rollers, andall that church happiness. Its colors would be earthtones, yellow, and black.The first version of Revelations was quite long, anhour and five minutes, and it had three sections. Thefirst was called “Pilgrim of Sorrow.” I took all the songsdealing with black people’s sorrow and put them inthis section. The middle section was to be wading inthe water. Songs such as “Honor, Honor” had all theextraordinary words. I was moved by what spiritualssay as words, as metaphors. So I found these shortsongs for the middle section.There were quite a few songs for the last section,“Move, Members, Move.” The whole ballet was agigantic suite of spirituals. I poured in just abouteverything, every beautiful spiritual I had ever heard.SchoolTime Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater | 5