Editing Alvin Ailey (section)

==Early life and education==
Ailey was born to Alvin Ailey and Lula Elizabeth Cliff<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Snodgrass |first=Mary Ellen |title=The encyclopedia of world ballet |date=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-4525-9 |location=Lanham, Md}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1800010 |title=Ailey, Alvin |last=Cockerille Livingston |first=Lili |website=American National Biography |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800010 |isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 |access-date=November 13, 2022}}</ref><ref name="BHN">{{Cite web |date=8 June 2010 |title=Alvin Ailey Biography at Black History Now |url=http://blackhistorynow.com/alvin-ailey/ |access-date=2019-07-29 |website=Black Heritage Commemorative Society |language=en-US}}</ref> in [[Rogers, Texas]], in his maternal grandfather's home at the height of the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. As a child in the violently racist and segregated south, during his youth Ailey was barred from interacting with mainstream society.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stewart |first=Kayla |date=2020-07-23 |title=How Alvin Ailey's 'Revelations' Has Helped Me Find My Way Back to Texas |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/alvin-ailey-dance-revelations/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Texas Monthly |language=en}}</ref> When he was five, Ailey's mother was raped by four white men (one likely an employer), and Ailey recalled seeing members of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] as a child.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Foulkes |first=Julia L. |title=Modern bodies: dance and American modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey |date=2006 |publisher=Univ. North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2698-0 |edition=Nachdr. |series=Cultural studies of the United States |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Hatfield |first=Joe Edward |date=2017-01-02 |title=Dancing southern diaspora: Alvin Ailey's blood and the backwardness of quare disidentification |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10462937.2017.1307441 |journal=Text and Performance Quarterly |language=en |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=51–67 |doi=10.1080/10462937.2017.1307441 |s2cid=194471375 |issn=1046-2937|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The elder Alvin Ailey abandoned the young Alvin and Lula shortly after Alvin was born, leaving Lula to work in cotton fields and as a [[domestic servant|domestic]] in white homes — the only employment available to her.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chan |first=Diana |date=2021-12-15 |title=Alvin Ailey on Chauncey Green, the friend who saved his life {{!}} American Masters {{!}} PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/alvin-ailey-chauncey-green-friend-who-saved-his-life-lym2ba/19604/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=American Masters |language=en-US}}</ref> By the time Ailey was five, he joined his mother picking cotton.<ref name=":4" /> After a white man raped Lula in 1936, Ailey began to fear white men.<ref name=":5" /> As an escape, Ailey found refuge in the church, sneaking out at night to watch adults dance, and in writing a journal, a practice that he maintained his entire life. Even this could not shield him from a childhood spent moving from town to town as his mother sought employment, being abandoned with relatives whenever she took off on her own.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E3DD1530F930A15753C1A960958260 |title=Frail, Strong and Dance Incarnate|author=Valerie Gladstone|date=October 23, 1996|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=January 9, 2009}}</ref><ref name="BHN" />

Looking for greater job prospects, Ailey's mother departed for [[Los Angeles]] in 1941. He arrived a year later, enrolling at George Washington Carver Junior High School, and then graduating into [[Jefferson High School (Los Angeles, California)|Thomas Jefferson High School]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dunning |first=Jennifer |date=1983-11-27 |title=AILEY'S TROUPE EXPLORES ITS ROOTS |language=en-US |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/27/arts/ailey-s-troupe-explores-its-roots.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He was able to explore the arts in high school, singing in glee club and writing poetry.<ref name=":0" /> He also took gymnastics.<ref name=":3" /> He frequently attended the [[Lincoln Theater (Los Angeles)|Lincoln]] and [[Orpheum Theatre (Los Angeles)|Orpheum]] Theatres, where he was able to see a variety of African American performers, including [[Pearl Bailey]], [[Fletcher Henderson]], [[Billie Holiday]], [[Lena Horne]], [[Pigmeat Markham]], [[Count Basie]], and [[Duke Ellington]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1946, Ailey had his first experience with concert dance, awakening an until then unknown spark of joy within him,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Katherine Dunham Helped Teach the World to Dance |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5436144 |access-date=2019-07-29 |website=NPR |language=en}}</ref> when he saw [[Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo]] on a school trip and [[Katherine Dunham Company|Katherine Dunham Dance Company]]'s "Tropical Review" on solitary trips to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Queering History: The revelations of Alvin Ailey - Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing |url=https://www.istd.org/discover/news/queering-history-the-revelations-of-alvin-ailey/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=www.istd.org}}</ref>

Also in high school, Ailey discovered his homosexuality, which added another layer of difference and isolation to his already racially segregated experience. Thus, "like many young gay men eager to corral the sensual impulses of the body, he turned to dance study."<ref name=":0" /> He briefly studied tap, followed by exploring "primitive dance", as taught by Dunham dancer [[Thelma Robinson]]. Neither of these styles were right for Ailey, possibly due to the  physical location and old-fashioned sensibility of the lessons.<ref name=":0" /> Therefore, he did not become serious about dance until 1949 when his classmate and friend [[Carmen De Lavallade]] dragged him to the [[Melrose Avenue]] studio of [[Lester Horton]] and he began exploring modern dance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lester Horton – More Resources · DHC Treasures |url=http://treasures.danceheritage.org/horton2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729002812/http://treasures.danceheritage.org/horton2 |archive-date=2019-07-29 |access-date=2019-07-29 |website=treasures.danceheritage.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kaufman |first=Sarah |title=Carmen de Lavallade is 86 and still the best dancer in the room |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_danc/carmen-de-lavallade-is-86-and-still-the-best-dancer-in-the-room/2017/11/30/03f05d86-cbeb-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html |access-date=2019-07-29}}</ref>

Ailey studied a wide range of dance styles and techniques — from ballet to Native American inspired movement studies — at Horton's school, which was one of the first racially integrated dance schools in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dancespirit.com/horton-technique-2326036575.html|title=Horton Technique|date=2017-03-23|website=Dance Spirit|language=en|access-date=2019-07-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alvinailey.org/alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater/lester-horton|title=Lester Horton|date=2016-04-11|website=Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater|language=en|access-date=2019-07-28}}</ref> Though Horton became his mentor,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-12-08-8802220952-story.html|title=Alvin Ailey's Assent|last=Kisselgoff|first=Anna |agency=The New York Times News Service|website=Chicago Tribune|date=8 December 1988 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-29}}</ref> Ailey did not commit to dancing full-time, recognizing the lack of opportunities for black male dancers.<ref name=":0" /> Instead, he pursued academic courses, studying [[romance language]]s and writing at [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] (1949),<ref>Judy Gitenstein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xEJ3Awxt87IC&dq=Alvin+Ailey+california+university&pg=PT21 ''Alvin Ailey''], New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006, p. 20.</ref><ref name="Dunning">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/02/obituaries/alvin-ailey-a-leading-figure-in-modern-dance-dies-at-58.html|title=Alvin Ailey, a Leading Figure In Modern Dance, Dies at 58|last=Dunning|first=Jennifer|date=1989-12-02|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Los Angeles City College]] (1950–1951), and [[San Francisco State University]] (1952). During this time, he sporadically returned to Horton to work between courses.<ref name=":0" /> Living in [[San Francisco]], he met [[Maya Angelou]], then known as Marguerite Johnson,<ref name="Shepeard" /> with whom he formed a nightclub act called "Al and Rita".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reformer.com/stories/al-and-rita,345303|title=Al and Rita|last=Balint|first=Becca|website=The Brattleboro Reformer|date=2 June 2014 |language=en|access-date=2019-07-28}}</ref> Eventually, he returned to study dance with Horton in Los Angeles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ubuntubiographyproject.com/2018/01/05/alvin-ailey/|title=Alvin Ailey|date=2018-01-06|language=en|access-date=2019-07-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221004400/https://ubuntubiographyproject.com/2018/01/05/alvin-ailey/|archive-date=21 December 2019|website=The Ubuntu Biography Project}}</ref>