Sometimes, Labels Don't Really Matter...

Last night, I attended a performance of the Alvin AileyAmerican Dance Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the most well-known and renowned dance companies in the United States.  Founded in 1958 by Alvin Ailey, the Company emerged during the Civil Rights era and became a forum for the expression of the African-American experience.  The Company’s website cites that it has performed for approximately 23 million people at theatres in 48 states and 71 countries on six continents.  Revelations, choreographed by Alvin Ailey himself, is the Company’s trademarked masterpiece. 

 

See a clip of it below:

 

In recognition of the Company’s historical significance and of its preservation of the American modern dance heritage, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution in 2008 designating the Company as “a vital American cultural ambassador to the world.”

In his book Perspectives on the New Public Diplomacy, James Pamment argues that such “terminology is not to be taken lightly” (Pamment 45).  Pamment believes that cultural diplomacy “previously held a protected status outside of the governmental fold.”  Since cultural diplomacy’s contemporary incorporation into the larger nexus of “public diplomacy” however, there seems to be little difference between political advocacy and cultural diplomacy; but has there ever really been such a distinction?  

Long before receiving official kudos from Congress, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater has existed with an inherently social and political agenda.  Its purpose was to protest racial hierarchies in the United States by showcasing a multi-racial (but initially all-black) modern dance company that was of a standard equal to (if not better than) that of its all-white counterparts. 

The objectives of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater are basically the same today.  Every time it performs in another country, acting as the “American cultural ambassador to the world,” it seeks to sustain and promote the image of America as a land of equality and opportunity for everyone.  Whether academia chooses to label these activities as "cultural diplomacy" or "public diplomacy" is therefore irrelevant.  The Company’s diplomatic utility should not be limited in order to fit into theoretical models.