Alvin Ailey and Arnie Zane

A

Ailey

lv i n

And

rnie

Zane

H i s t o r y o f H I V / AID S

On June 5 1981, the US Center for Disease Control

and Prevention published a report identifying rare cases of lung infections in five, young, previously healthy, gay men. By the end of 1981, there were 270 reported cases and 121 deaths. On January 4 1982, Gay Men’s Health Cri-

sis, the first community-based AIDS service, was established in New York City. Shortly after, the CDC coined the acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) replacing the name the New York Times used, “Gay-related Immunodeficiency (GRID). The first bill passed that included funding specifically for AIDS research and treatment was not until May 18, 1983, but President Reagan did not publicly mention AIDS until 1985. The HIV/AIDS stigma that gay men are sexually indiscriminate and dangerous was further enforced by the media in the 1980s and 1990s. This created cultural and social ramifications demonstrated in discrimination against people in the LGBTQ community as well as a slow response to research, health and safety policies, and medication to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The red ribbon became the international symbol of AIDS awareness.

When AIDS visibly attacked the body and blindly targeted gay men, it also visibly attacked and blindly targeted dance. Because the body cannot hide in dance, it became the vessel for a kind of physical truth. Those who performed with AIDS visibly wore the effects of the disease on their skin and forced audiences to look. At the same time, a dancing body, however weak, is also a body in motion.

It is alive. Dancers with AIDS, for as long as they were able, faced impending death with an insistence on demonstrating life, offering a portrait of stubborn dignity. So dance, by its nature, became a social statement, a political act, a demonstration of trust.

3

ALVIN AILEY

Alvin Ailey was a dancer and choreographer born

in Texas 1931. Mr. Ailey founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to create his own work on a company dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving African-American cultural dance.

His best known piece is titled “Revelations,” and uses African- American spirituals and gospel songs to pay tribute to African American heritage and his childhood growing up in the South in a Baptist Church. When Mr. Ailey died on December 1, 1989, of AIDS The New York Times said of him, “you didn’t need to have known [him] personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm, and exuberance and his courageous stand for multi-racial brotherhood.” In 2014, he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of his contributions and commitment to civil rights and dance in America. His left in his legacy a company that continue to produce work, a school that will continue to promote art education, and choreography that will continue to touch the hearts of audiences. Mr. Ailey kept his personal life personal most likely to protect his career and himself from stigma associated with gay men during the epidemic. Now, we can recognize him for his authenticity in his work and his love.

Arnie Zane was a photographer, dancer, and cho-

reographer born in the Bronx in 1948. He formed the American Dance Asylum with Bill T. Jones and Lois Welk in 1973. They scandalized some audiences by partnering male dancers and addressing social and political ideas in their art. Much of their work incorporated multimedia elements such as spoken narrative and videotape.

Mr. Zane and Mr. Jones formed the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. Arnie’s background in photography fostered interested visual designs in his choreography that were used to mix abstract and anecdotal movements. Their creative interchange defined each other’s artistic vision and led to one of the most celebrated collaborations and explorations of movement, gender, race, and politics in late twentieth-century dance. They shared their personal and creative lives together for the next seventeen years, forging a relationship and a dance company that made them the most visible gay couple in American dance in the 1980s.

Arnie died from AIDS in 1988 at the age of 39. After his death, Bill T. Jones kept his name attached to the company and created works to raise awareness and pay tribute to those impacted by AIDS. Mr. Jones has been living and creating with AIDS for the last 35 years.

ARNIE ZANE

MONUMENT SKETCH AND DESCRIPTION

1. Base of the monument is a stone floor with 20x30 dimensions with imprints of shoes and arrows etched into it to appear like a floor plan for a dance. The shoes will be the same size as Arnie Zane and Alvin Ailey. The idea is that people will walk over the floor and “dance in their shoes.”

2. In the corner of the floor will be a podium trimmed with red ribbon (the international symbol for AIDS awareness) with the names of Choreographers/pieces/ organizations that used dance as a medium to spread awareness about AIDS to honor their work 3. On top of the podium will be a statue of Arnie Zane and Alvin Ailey dancing together. The statue will be made out of a material of the artist’s choosing that would look good with the stone floor and could be used to see details and some shades of colors. The statue should be full of life and appearing as if the two men were paused mid-dance while looking at each other and smiling. There will pops of red on their shoes and clothes to compliment the ribbon on the base and draw attention to the shows on the floor.

4. In each corner of the floor there will be a light post wrapped in red ribbon and a spotlight that will turn on at night to allow people to see the statue in the evening and use the “dance floor”

GMU LOCATION Where: George Mason University Center for the Arts on the grass near Mason Pond Why: Center for the Arts is the theater on campus that attracts students and community members who love the arts. The monument would be seen by a large audience of people who are interested in dance and the arts.

MONUMENT

WORLD LOCATION Where: On the property of Wolf Trap performing arts venue in Vienna, Virginia Why: Alvin Ailey commissioned a new work from Arnie Zane and Bill T. Jones, “How to Walk an Elephant,� which premiered in Wolf Trap in 1985. The two collaborated at this location so it is fitting to bring them back together again.

These two men deserve to be recognized for their contributions to the dance community (which are still affecting the dance world today) and to raise awareness of the immense damage the AIDS epidemic had on the world. Because it was difficult for them to be out and proud in the 1980s, I want to create a monument of Pride so the world can appreciate them for who they were authentically.