Twin documentaries spotlight dance legends Ailey and Jones

Alvin Ailey and Bill T. Jones may have a generation between them, but the two influential choreographers crossed paths at a few pivotal moments. Ailey was the one who commissioned Jones’ first work, “Fever Swap,” in 1983. A few years later in 1989, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Jones, then famous in his own right, would create one of his most notable works and a response to the crisis: “DMan in the Waters.” It was also the year Ailey died at age 58 of complications from the disease.

So it’s a fateful coincidence that this summer both men are getting the spotlight in two terrific documentaries: “Ailey,” opening nationwide on Aug. 6, and “Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and DMan in the Waters,” which is currently in theaters.

“Ailey” director Jamila Wignot said the project found her in 2017. She’d been a fan of Ailey influential modern dance work and his company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, but realized she didn’t know much about him beyond that. It may have been intentional on his part: Despite his fame, Ailey was a private person.

The documentary is partially framed around a new staging of a classic Ailey dance from choreographer Rennie Harris, who, like Wignot, is trying to figure out “what made Mr. Ailey Mr. Ailey.” Thankfully, Wingot made a pivotal discovery that helped inch closer to an answer: Revealing audio recordings that he conducted in the last year of his life.

“That really opened up the possibilities for the film,” Wignot said. “He revealed things that certainly were not part of his, you know, public presentation of self.”

Ailey in the recordings talks candidly about his childhood in a segregated, impoverished Texas in the Depression, the deep wounds of a non-existent relationship with his father, the transformative experience of seeing a pioneer like Katherine Dunham dance and his own sexual awakening, which for him was a beautiful experience.

“There’s so few in particular Black institutions that survive their founders and it’s an extraordinary institution in that regard,” Wignot said. “But I wanted people to remember this kind of deeply passionate, vulnerable, sensitive person who is at the heart of it and whose presence you still feel.”

Associated Press This image courtesy of Neon shows a scene from director Jamila Wignot’s “Ailey,” a film about influential choreographer Alvin Ailey.