Throughout the last twenty years I have eagerly attended performances of Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater's ballet program, especially looking forward to seeing them perform their classic piece, "Revelations" on which my Revelations Dance Series is based. Seeing the performances as many times as possible has given me many opportunities to feel the "hope, inspiration and exhilaration" conveyed through Ailey's "Revelations", a ballet about his own experiences as an African-American growing up in the South.

I usually paint to music, and frequently listened to the gospel music from the "Revelations" ballet performances as I created the Revelations Dance Series. "As I started to paint with the music in the background, I found myself painting the movement, the flavor, and the images that lingered in my heart-memory." I once heard Ailey's Artistic Director Judith Jamison say, "The dance takes hold of the dancer." I certainly felt myself being pulled in to the spirit and faith of the dance and the music while creating this series of 13 paintings.

I chose to paint the series in acrylic on large canvases - typically 48" x 60" - giving me room to reach and stretch and to reflect my interest in the physicality of painting. My shapes bend and twist, push and pull as people do. The series builds on my usual Abstract-Expressionist style, revealing strong figurative elements emerging from and interacting with my abstract representations of motion, light, and space.

I use strong diagonal thrusts to add power to the motion of my paintings, and work by applying many layers of paint to the canvas, building a complex surface of planes and color imbuing my work with a sense of depth. The triptychs in the Revelations Dance Series each reveal a sweeping and dramatic moment in the "Revelations" story.

My choice of colors for the series echoes Ailey's own: the series begins in shades of brown and orange, moves through whites and watery blues, and culminates in yellows and fiery reds. Like Ailey I wanted to utilize color to break the series into distinct movements. In the first part, the browns convey sadness and heaviness, the plight of constant toil. The second party introduces the "baptism", both metaphorically and literally, as figures are immersed in waves of blue and notably clad in pure white garments. In the final part of the series, I introduce sunny yellows as figures lift their heads to the heavens and rejoice. In the final painting, the ensemble joins together to reach upward as light filters through their limbs, creating the effect of sunlight streaming through clouds just after a storm has passed.

It is my intent that this series create a living monument to "Revelations" as Alvin Ailey's work and art. The response to these paintings has been very positive. By request of those who wanted to purchase these paintings, I have decided to issue a limited edition re-creation on canvas using a very fine method, called Giclee (Zhee-Clay). Original paintings are also available for sale.

--Rochelle Blumenfeld

Ballet Lovers Guide (February 2001)
"..the pictures that accompany my writing today and accompanied my piece in the summer issue were all done by Rochelle Blumenfeld. She has captured the energy and spirit of the dance in a way that boggles the mind. There is such feeling in these paintings. I think this is a testament to Mr. Ailey's work-how it is able to affect all people-and also to Ms. Blumenfeld who possesses the spirit of love in every stroke."
-- by Camille Ratteray Vann

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