Dance Review: Alvin Ailey Awakens Guts, Love and Light

Something distinguishes the Ailey dancer. Beyond technical prowess and fluidity, the Ailey dancer’s most remarkable trait is courage. Each one stands up against the false, by virtue of expressing their personal truth. Such magic on stage may only be possible by skill and rhythm, but is made manifest by the heart—and thus, we have Ailey, the institution that might even take for granted talent, and make priority courageous self-expression. As audience, we are moved and therefore in motion, creating a new self.

Such collective valor on stage elicits from the audience laughter, tears, foot-taps, hand-claps and finger snaps, but this is just surface. Internally, we’re grateful Ailey’s choreography is considerate enough to transpose our pain into a pleasure just as exquisite. The audience latches onto what the dancers emote, as if Ailey’s inflamed glimpse of the universe rings true to the forgotten passions of the heart, or the wondrous hope drummed up for the future.

Blues Suite starts the exchange—the dialogue between the dancers and the audience. We’re transported back to Ailey’s southern roots, in which perhaps riches could only be found within. Expressions of frustration, the triumph of pain and frenetic flirtations come alive on stage. But it’s the combination of the dancers’ synchronicity, combined with their distinctive personalities that make it remarkable.

In “Backwater Blues,” we’re treated to a delicious “cat and mouse” game between Renee Robinson and Glenn Allen Sims. Renee Robinson is sassy beyond belief, wanting her suitor to treat her right—she drops her scarf, for instance, and expects him to pick it up. The frustration goes on and is hysterical, but how relieved we all feel when she finally falls into his arms; all her attitude—so pin-pointedly particular—dissolves when she just becomes a girl who wants to let go. It’s a moment like this, when the specific becomes universal, that real art has been engendered.

Watching Ailey, we’re privileged to watch the work of one of the most innovative choreographers of all time; but we’re just as blessed to be privy to the raw emotions expressed by the company. “In the Evening” is almost taken over by the gripping, 6 foot 3 ½ inch Jamar Roberts. Watching him move, one might guess every single experience he’s had has been accounted for, channeled into tight and fluid, unstoppable and steady movement. The joy of his strength exercised is testament to the Ailey dancer’s ability to stylize carnality in such a way that it becomes godlike. Ailey’s unique fusion of modern, ballet and jazz perhaps makes such a feat possible.

The night ends with Ailey’s trademark piece, Revelations, in which the qualities that embody the institution are fused: passion, soul, hope and hunger. The “revelation” here may be that we all have a light inside, and if we want to strengthen it, make it more than just a flicker, there’s help from a higher power—the energy of love. And with that consciousness, we may light up the world. But it takes courage to ask, to hope, to heal, to love. To the beat of “Rocka My Soul,” the audience in the BAM theater shines bright with the joy of being alive, as our teachers dance with us from the stage.

Alvin Ailey Repertory Photography © Steve Vaccariello.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Joe Damiano
Performance: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Classic Ailey (Program B)
Choreography: Alvin Ailey
Venue: Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
Performance Date: Wednesday – June 10, 2009
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