I feel an obligation to use black dancers because there must be more opportunities for them, but not because I'm a black choreographer talking to black people.
— Alvin Ailey
Its roots are in American Negro culture, which is part of the whole country's heritage, but the dance speaks to everyone... Otherwise, it wouldn't work.
The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it's with you all the time.
One of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people.
No matter what you write or choreograph, you feel it's not enough.
Money is a never-ending problem.
In this business, life is one long fund-raising effort.
I always want to have more dancers in my company.
We still spend more time chasing funds than we do in the studio in creative work.
I'm interested in putting something on stage that will have a very wide appeal without being condescending; that will reach an audience and make it part of the dance; that will get everybody in the theater.
From his roots as a slave, the American Negro - sometimes sorrowing, sometimes jubilant but always hopeful - has touched, illuminated, and influenced the most remote preserves of world civilisation. I and my dance theater celebrate this trembling beauty.
Sometimes you feel bad about yourself when there's no reason to.
One of the processes of your life is to constantly break down that inferiority, to constantly reaffirm that I Am Somebody.
My lasting impression of Truman Capote is that he was a terribly gentle, terribly sensitive, and terribly sad man.
Lena Horne is the sweetest and most adorable woman in the world.
If you live in the elite world of dance, you find yourself in a world rife with racism. Let's face it.
I always want more.
Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.
We talk too much of black art when we should be talking about art, just art. Black composers must be free to write rondos and fugues, not only protest songs.
I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation.
Racism tears down your insides so that no matter what you achieve, you're not quite up to snuff.
Nothing personal; I just don't have people over.
My feelings about myself have been terrible.
It will take very sophisticated marketing to achieve our aim of bringing more black people into the theater.
I'm attracted to long-legged girls with long arms and a little head.
Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.
I am trying to show the world that we are all human beings and that color is not important. What is important is the quality of our work.
