Dance Interview: Matthew Rushing, Interim Artistic Director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
By Robert Israel
“We ask them to interpret the music through their own experiences, so they are connecting to and performing what Mr. Ailey called ‘blood memories’ on stage.”
Interim Artistic Director Matthew Rushing. Photo: Andrew Eccles
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founded in 1958 and permanently housed in New York, began performing in Boston 56 years ago and has been returning every spring (except during the Covid years). This year’s Celebrity Series performances, on May 2-5 at the Wang Theatre, mark the Company’s 51st appearance in Boston.
To gain insights about the upcoming show, Arts Fuse spoke to Matthew Rushing who joined the company in 1992 and now serves as its Interim Artistic Director, during a break in performances from Nashville, Tenn.
Arts Fuse: The Company is performing Revelations, choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1960. He said the work showed the African-American heritage as “sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.” How does the company keep a vintage piece like this fresh? What goes into restaging it?
Matthew Rushing: I don’t feel we restage the piece, as such. More to the point, what we do is bring new dancers into it while upholding the integrity of the original work itself. It’s more about coaching. As we move in time further and further away from the ’60s and the turbulent era when Mr. Ailey’s work first appeared, we want to make sure the new dancers understand the subject matter, the movement quality, and that they grasp the story about where the piece came from. It’s about teaching them how to carry their bodies, moving the weight of their bodies not so high and lifted, which in classical ballet we call “pulled up,” but, rather, directing them to be more relaxed and grounded, deeper to the stage floor, in an effort to signify the suffering that is expressed in the work.
Former Ailey dancer Matthew Rushing in Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. Photo: Andrew Eccles
Arts Fuse: As the years pass, and the collective memories of history dim, does it become harder to teach this to the new dancers?
Matthew Rushing: I hate to say this, but it’s actually easier to teach it since we are continually going through these struggles, anxieties, and anguishes in our current lives. We point out to the dancers that they need to draw from their experiences about what they are feeling right now and how that is being manifested in their movements on stage and how it is reflected in the work.
AF: The Company is also presenting Century, a work from 2023, choreographed by Amy Hall Garner, described as a “personal piece inspired by her grandfather on the eve of his 100th birthday.” It features the work of 20th century jazz artists like Count Basie and Ray Charles. How does the Company go about teaching younger dancers to perform a history piece when they haven’t lived that music?
Rushing: What Mr. Ailey emphasized is that dancers express where we came from and how we’re moving into the future. Amy has a contemporary voice. Yes, she draws on classic jazz. Younger dancers are taught to draw on their own personal memories. How does today’s connect to the music of the period and inspire them? We ask them to interpret the music through their own experiences, so they are connecting to and performing what Mr. Ailey called “blood memories” on stage.
AF: Playwright August Wilson used that term – “blood memory” – to express what he said African-Americans feel for their ancestral roots. He insisted blood memory stretched back in time over centuries.
Rushing: That’s exactly what we’re drawing from, too. It’s about experiencing truth in all its forms. It’s about bringing one’s experiences, past and present, to the work itself, and to what the work says about one’s own life and connecting it to a larger sense of ancestral roots. I’d say Alvin Ailey and August Wilson were kindred spirits.
AF: Finally, what do you hope audiences take away?
Rushing: The Alvin Ailey mantra is to give dance back to the people. We believe it came from the people. What we are doing is delivering it back. And what we are trying to accomplish is to not only tell stories on stage, but to also make sure you feel enlightened. The work is accessible. It is not over your head. You will see it through your own lives. It affirms you. It helps to make you a better person.
Robert Israel, an Arts Fuse contributor since 2013, can be reached at risrael_97@yahoo.com.
Gm, I thoroughly enjoyed the article.
It was insightful. Thank you Mr. Rushing, for your razor precision in expressing our history in dance. From our ancestors and dancers of today this artform, is spectacular! There is nothing like this anywhere (in my opinion). Thank you all for the elegant way, story telling is done. You will always have an audience!