(2/6) In his autobiography Ailey recounts: “Revelations began with the music. As early as I can remember I was enthralled by the music played and sung in the small black churches in every small Texas town my mother and I lived in.” (affiliate link)
“The first version of Revelations was quite long, and hour and five minutes. [...] The whole ballet was a gigantic suite of spirituals. I poured in just about everything, every beautiful spiritual I had ever heard. […] I thought the first version of Revelations might be too long, but nobody ever complained about the length. The critics and audience had nothing but the most delicious praise from the beginning. We did two concerts in 1960, when Revelations was premiered.”
These photos were taken in 1961, just a year after it premiered.
(top left) Don Martin, Ella Thompson, Alvin Ailey, Myrna White, James Truitte, Minnie Marshall, 1961.
(top right) Alvin Ailey, Myrna White, James Truitte, Ella Thompson, Minnie Marshall, & Don Martin, 1961.
(bottom left) Alvin Ailey, Ella Thompson Moore and Myrna White, 1961.
(bottom right) Alvin Ailey, Lucinda Ransom, and Loretta Abbott in Alvin Ailey's Revelations. Photo by Zoe Dominic
Photos 1-3 by Jack Mitchell © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution
Photo 4 by Zoe Dominic.