The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been such a mainstay of NY City Center’s Christmas season for so long that one tends to take them for granted. It doesn’t help that even in Ailey’s lifetime, the company had a reputation as having a rather limited repertoire. But when you actually go to their performances, they’re incredible. They’re full of joy, their company of dancers is so committed and charismatic, and their mission remains as timely as ever.
It’s useful to view the program through a novice’s eyes. I brought my friend who had never attended an Ailey performance and he was enthralled. He generally only attends classical ballet, but he found the Ailey dancers so wonderful. The audience was deliriously happy too.
It was an excellent program, a good mix of old and new. First on the program was Medhi Walerski’s Blink of an Eye. Music: Bach’s Partitas for Solo Violin. Blink of an Eye was originally choreographed for Nederlands Dance Theater, and the Ailey dancers did not look completely at home in the austere, somewhat stereotypical European modern-dance choreography.
Ailey dancers tend to be exuberant, extroverted. Blink of an Eye “explores the fragile boundary between presence and absence, change and stillness”. So, gloomy and introverted. Dark lighting, dark costumes, stark movements. Ailey dancers always look magnificent, but Blink of an Eye subdued them, dimmed their light somewhat.
Judith Jamison’s A Case of You was much more the Ailey dancers’ metier. Joni Mitchell’s famous song is the backdrop to the kind of sultry, bendy duet that left the audiences very happy. Samantha Figgins and Isaiah Day were beautiful. Breathtaking in the shapes they made, and their charisma. The audience applauded when Figgins ran across the stage and jumped right on Day’s thighs.
Now, was this actually a great piece of choreography? No. It reminded me a lot of Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain, another somewhat syrupy duet. But does it show off the talents of the company’s dancers? Absolutely yes.
After an intermission came my personal favorite work on the program, Ronald K. Brown’s eternal, ageless Grace. Grace premiered in 1999 but remains as fresh and exciting as it ever was. I love the way all the dancers come through a doorway. I love the white ‘angels’ and red ‘devils’ competing, I love the mix of Duke Ellington and Afro-Caribbean club music. I love how the whole dance seems completely spontaneous. Dancers are gyrating to the beat, even if it is all carefully choreographed. I love the uplifting ending, where the ‘angels’ have won and everyone is dressed in white, and Ellington’s Come Sunday is repeated. Although all the dancers were magnificent, Jacquelin Harris deserves extra praise for her majestic dancing as the lead ‘angel’.
Revelations closed the program (of course). I’ve seen this classic so many times that it’s easy to be jaded. But then the dancers start moving, and the magic spell still works. Renaldo Maurice in the I Wanna Be Ready solo danced it as well as I’ve ever seen this danced. The finale still has people dancing in their seats. One also admires the modest, unadorned way the Ailey dancers present this piece. With warhorses, fatigue does set in, and dancers often start to relentlessly sell the program. Don’t believe me? Watch how crude and overacted the Black Swan pas de deux often becomes. But Ailey dancers don’t oversell Revelations, they simply dance it.
As I said, the Ailey company is strangely underrated by dance aficionados. Alvin Ailey was never avant-garde the way Merce Cunningham was, or provocative the way Paul Taylor was. But if you live in NY, don’t be jaded. Go treat yourself to Alvin Ailey.
