| . | 12/23/2008
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues its 50 years celebration
By: Joel Benjamin
In celebration of its 50th Anniversary--a milestone for any performing arts institution--the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater presented a number of performances backed by live music, including the great Wynton Marsalis with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Kenny Brawner and his band. These performances were especially exciting in a season of great dancing. Live music brought the AAADT to new heights and encouraged the dancers to pull out all the stops. Dancers Olivia Bowman and Abdur –Rahmin Jackson added that, since live music always differs slightly from rehearsal tapes, they had the heightened challenge of “staying in the moment”.
Night Creature Photo by Andrew Eccles
The December 16th performance was dedicated to Sylvia Waters who was celebrating her 40 years with the Alvin Ailey organization. She is the director of the Ailey II troupe and this show presented her younger troupe in three works that showed the Ailey II's strengths and a few of its weaknesses. "The Hunt," choreographed by Robert Battle to pounding music by Les Tambours du Bronx displayed the young men of Ailey II, barechested and clad in flowing dark culottes, in a ten-minute ritual of jumping, lifting, falling and flailing about. This was exciting stuff. "Splendid Isolation II" was a solo for Fana Fraser choreographed by Jessica Lang to ecclesiastically-tinged music by Trio Mediaeval. In a white gown whose train almost filled the stage, Ms. Fraser fluently bent, reached and slowly turned, encasing herself in the flowing white material. She became an almost mystical creature, bathed in Al Crawford's lighting. The final work danced by Ailey II was "Escapades," choreographed by Alvin Ailey (restaged by Christopher Huggins) to music by Max Roach & Benny Golson. "Escapades" was a playful work with sexy overtones for the entire Ailey II. In simple white costumes, they showed off in groups, duos and trios, first the men, then the women, leaping about, falling, lifting each other, establishing quick relationships and displaying their innate personalities. This was Ailey at his simplest and cheeriest.
The Ailey II dancers clearly have talent, but they are still young and fairly inexperienced. They go for effects too often and don't always finish or connect phrases artfully. They do, however, have a visceral excitement that only the young and enthusiastic can offer.
Blues Suite. Photo © Steve Vaccariello.
The program opened with the AAADT performing Ailey's "Blues Suite." The traditional bluesy score was performed by Kenny Brawner and the Brawner Brothers Ensemble. Mr. Brawner conducted and sang the score in perfect style.
A large ladder dominated the set. This became a staircase, a balcony, a hiding place, etc. "Blues Suite" evokes a period of colorful characters: prostitutes, johns, petty criminals, lovers, hicks and slinky lowdown types. Under the guise of richly colorful costumes (by Ves Harper) and dazzlingly slick performances the cast managed to evoke the heartache and needs of these people. Using steps familiar from other Ailey works such as "Revelations," they made us see a community coping with poverty and despair. Ailey recycles his movement motifs--chaine turns with upraised arms; deep, twisted lunges; ensembles arranged in triangular groupings, etc.--the way all great choreographer like Paul Taylor, Martha Graham and even George Balanchine do. He puts them into new musical and dramatic contexts and the skilled dancers color the movements according to these contexts. The richness of "Blues Suite" is in the emotional details and the characters all of which the current dancers evoke with full bodied grace.
Clifton Brown and Jamar Roberts. Photo by Andrew Eccles
The December 18th featured the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. They opened with Ellington's score for Ailey's "The River." "The River" was originally staged on point for the American Ballet Theater and uses a good deal of classical vocabulary. The Ailey dancers often had some trouble with the balletic steps, perhaps due to lack of rehearsal, but gave "The River" the impassioned performance that ABT rarely did. Best of the eight, water-themed sections was the opening "Spring," led by Clifton Brown and an ensemble that ebbed and flowed and the solo "Vortex" performed by Akua Parker. This solo was made famous by Leslie Browne in the film "The Turning Point," but Ms. Parker managed to humanize the whirling choreography, emphasizing its passion. Guillermo Asca led the company in "Riba." He bopped about loosely as the group moved around him in lines that excluded him. He didn't seem to care and was in a world of his own. "The River" is one of Ailey's more sophisticated works and it is fascinating to see how the AAADT's performance differs from the original.
A. Douthit, G. Sims, and K. Boyd. Photo by Andrew Eccles.
Excerpts from several works featuring Ellington's music began with two sections of "The Road of the Phoebe Snow." Jazz Trio, danced by Hope Boykin, Matthew Rushing and Antonio Douthit was lighthearted with Ms. Boykin being partnered by the guys and Dirty Duet was darkly sexual. Aisha Mitchell sashayed about, stripping off her dress to attract a disinterested Jamar Roberts. After some rough thrashing about, Mr. Roberts simply left, leaving Ms. Mitchell peeved and frustrated.
Louis Falco's "Caravan" duet was performed elegantly by Linda Celeste Sims and Clifton Brown who created a loving, flirty relationship out of Falco's slightly messy choreography. They never took their eyes off each other, even when at opposite sides of the stage and the high-extension partnering was done with delicacy and wit.
Linda Celeste Sims in Alvin Ailey’s Pas de Duke. Photo by Lois Greenfield
The Marie Bryant section of "The Mooche" was led by Constance Stamatiou, backed up by eight men. They partnered her elegantly to Ellington's period score. "Pas de Duke," originally a piece d'occasion for Judith Jamison and Baryshnikov was represented by the female solo danced by Linda Celeste Sims who more than held her own, costumed in sleek, shiny black, with the memory of Ms. Jamison. She was flirtatious and elegant at the same time in all the high kicks and tilts of the steps and made the solo her own.
Matthew Rushing. Photo by Andrew Eccles.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. section of Ailey's "Three Black Kings" was led by the company stalwart Matthew Rushing who danced against the ensemble to Ellington's musical portrait. Here the group performed movements reminiscent of the "Rocka My Soul" section of "Revelations," moving in small, striding circles, but again these familiar movements took on a statelier feel as the movements gradually led the ensemble off the stage, leaving Mr. Rushing alone in a thoughtful pose.
Revelations. Photo by Andrew Eccles.
Both these programs ended with "Revelations." One of the pleasures of going to several performances of the AAADT is seeing how different dancers interpret this work. This time "I Want to be Ready" was danced by Matthew Rushing who gave it a powerful resonance while Guillermo Asca was lighter and slightly more desperate. An earlier performance by Clifton Brown was sublimely controlled and almost beatific.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater isn't sitting on its laurels. It is keeping the company in tiptop and exciting shape while preparing a new generation, the Ailey II, to keep the traditions and standards moving into what should be a long future.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The New York City Center
135 West 55fth St.
New York, NY
Cititix: 212-581-1212
December 3, 2008 - January 3, 2009
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