Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries

Alvin Ailey: A Legend of American Dance (2022x14)

Air date: Apr 17, 2022

Alvin Ailey was a visionary African American artist who found salvation through dance. Using never-before-heard audio interviews recorded in the last year of his life, we experience Ailey’s astonishing journey in his words, starting with the memories of his childhood in Texas living under the Jim Crow laws that legitimised segregation. Raised by a single mother who struggled to provide, Ailey knew hardship, but his life was rich with culture and love. He brings us into his world of blues, gospel, juke joints and church. And he tells us about the blush of young love and the awakening of his gay identity. Ailey’s story is one of sacrifice. Possessed by his ambitions, he dedicated himself to his company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, which he established in 1958 when he was just 27 years old. He endured racism and homophobia, addiction and mental illness, and the burden of being an iconic African American artist. In 1989, he tragically succumbed to the Aids epidemic. Thirty ye