Surname 1
Name
Professor’s Name
Date
Assignment
Course
Day, Time
The Revelation Dance
Culture is the customs, ideas and social behaviour of a certain people or society. Culture
can be portrayed through several indicators, dance among them. Alvin Ailey has used The
Revelation dance to portray people’s experiences in society and using African-American
spirituals, he has explored the places of holiest joy and deepest grief in the souls. Therefore, The
Revelation Dance is a form of communication through which the performers have been used to
express themselves to their audience. The Revelation dance has used song sermons and gospel
songs to purposely show the cultural treasure and tell a tale of African American faith and
journey from slavery to freedom.
Using bare-footed African American dancers and songs, Ailey tells a story of the
persistence of African-Americans. Logan-Alston (n.p) shows how Ailey has divided The
Revelation into three parts ‘Pilgrim of Sorrow’, ‘Take Me to the Water’, and ‘Move, Members,
Move’ which involve different dances representing different experiences and aspects of worship.
“The Pilgrim of Sorrow” shows how people hope for salvation, however difficult life is. In this
section, Ailey has used songs such as, ‘I been Buked and I’ve been scorned’, ‘Didn’t my Lord
Deliver Daniel’, and ‘Fix Me, Jesus’ to portray the level of sorrow that the African American
undergo and the legacy of slavery. These songs display emotions that make me sympathetic to
Name
Professor’s Name
Date
Assignment
Course
Day, Time
The Revelation Dance
Culture is the customs, ideas and social behaviour of a certain people or society. Culture
can be portrayed through several indicators, dance among them. Alvin Ailey has used The
Revelation dance to portray people’s experiences in society and using African-American
spirituals, he has explored the places of holiest joy and deepest grief in the souls. Therefore, The
Revelation Dance is a form of communication through which the performers have been used to
express themselves to their audience. The Revelation dance has used song sermons and gospel
songs to purposely show the cultural treasure and tell a tale of African American faith and
journey from slavery to freedom.
Using bare-footed African American dancers and songs, Ailey tells a story of the
persistence of African-Americans. Logan-Alston (n.p) shows how Ailey has divided The
Revelation into three parts ‘Pilgrim of Sorrow’, ‘Take Me to the Water’, and ‘Move, Members,
Move’ which involve different dances representing different experiences and aspects of worship.
“The Pilgrim of Sorrow” shows how people hope for salvation, however difficult life is. In this
section, Ailey has used songs such as, ‘I been Buked and I’ve been scorned’, ‘Didn’t my Lord
Deliver Daniel’, and ‘Fix Me, Jesus’ to portray the level of sorrow that the African American
undergo and the legacy of slavery. These songs display emotions that make me sympathetic to
