The new director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Alicia Graf Mack, brings her company to Sadler’s Wells with a programme of New Works delivered with the emotional drive we expect from this iconic company. Mack has enjoyed an outstanding career both as performer and director and is a perfect fit for the company that respects its roots like no other.
Alvin Ailey’s Revelations that closes every programme is an anthem for humanity that never fails to bring the audience to their feet, clapping and cheering. The power of faith which sustained the African American community through the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, shines through. The movement is firmly built on Horton technique, deep pliés in second, strong contractions and extended diagonals.
The lyrical grace of I Been ‘Buked, moves to deep soul searching in I Wanna Be Ready in a riveting performance by Xavier Mack. Then there is the visceral fear in ‘Sinner Man’ danced with fierce passion by Sebastian Garcia, Isaiah Day and notably Partick Coker whose explosive jumps resonated like an electric charge. There is also the joyful community spirit in the fluttering white dresses and parasols in Wade In The Water and those fluttering, gossiping yellow fans in Rocka My Soul. Once this solid beat strikes up, we are on home ground and all’s right in the world! It is an incredible feat to perform this work so regularly. It’s to be expected that the moves are perfectly performed but it is super impressive that the commitment never wavers, with joy and passion spilling over into the auditorium. I first saw Revelations performed in Washington DC in the late 1970s and the flame still burns bright.
While Revelations may be the foundation stone, these dancers also know how to fly. Medhi Walerski’s Blink of an Eye gave them the opportunities. It is spare and sparse but intricately crafted with focus on the precision and beauty of J.S.Bach’s violin sonatas and partita. The simplest of costumes, black leotards for the four women and black trousers for the four men, reveal the dancers’ form and the moody lighting illuminates while occasionally only giving a silhouette. It is themed on the liminal boundary between stillness and movement, silence and sound and in its artistic beauty rises to hover between the earthly and the spiritual.
Song of the Anchorite is an introspective work with a wealth of derivations. It’s a world premiere by Jamar Roberts, his revision of an Ailey solo, Hermit Songs based on medieval religious texts. The music is jazz trumpeter Avishai Cohen’s interpretation of Maurice Ravel’s Adagio. Yannick Lebrun takes on the weight of this history and performs with gravitas in a solo of prayerful gestures and deep floor-based moves. It’s a solo demanding the dancer’s unrelenting commitment to being in the moment and this it got in full measure from Lebrun.
Lar Lubovitch offered Many Angels, which were, in fact, five dancers. It was a 2024 world premiere and an interlude of beauty and harmony where strong dancers, dressed in the softest of pastel chiffon, danced to the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony. Set against a backdrop of rosy clouds waiting for the angel footfall, It was a poem, written in moves of lyrical beauty.
A Case of You, choreographed by Judith Jamison and freshly produced in 2025 was a treat for the bold personalities of Caroline T. Dartey and Christopher Taylor. It’s a fractious relationship full of doubts and questions but driven by an underlying depth of feelings and played out to the voice of Diana Krall singing the Joni Mitchell song. The choreography expresses it all so well. Taylor has a solo of frustration and longing while Dartey literally flies into his arms in her passion. Thankfully it closes on an embrace.
The company is looking great, as is the rep. I hope we don’t have to wait so long before a return visit.
