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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Grace, C# Street – B-Flat Avenue,
Revelations
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 Music:Grace is danced in part to Duke Ellington's Come Sunday which is included in The Best Of The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition C# Street + B-Flat Avenue is danced to: David Murray's Picasso |
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I still remember the first time I saw Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater. It was back in the ‘70s and I was a parent chaperone for one
of those fifth grade theater trips designed to introduce young people to the arts. It was
the same night I learned to do the soul-clap, no easy feat for a white chick from the
snooty Chicago suburbs.
The program ended – as Ailey programs often do – with the
signature "Revelations." I remember the entire auditorium swaying and clapping
to the finale, "Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham." I remember the company
repeating the number after the bows as the crowd, my small son and I included, went
berserk.
Flash forward a whole bunch of years to Tuesday night at Zellerbach
Hall in Berkeley. As a critic I have seen the company many times over by now but am no
less a fan. My little boy is a dot.com honcho off in Texas and I am walking with a cane
but the hall is again filled with youngsters (and grownups), screaming and clapping to
"Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham." It’s nice to know that, in our
fast-changing world, there are some things you still can count on. This time, I know to
stay in my seat after the final bows. I am not disappointed. The smiling, sweating dancers
do it again.
Since the death of its founder, in 1989, former lead dancer
Judith Jamison not only has kept the company going but has polished it to a high sheen,
adding works by new choreographers while honoring the original Ailey repertoire. What
began in 1958, with a bunch of young African American dancers at the 92nd
Street Y in New York, has evolved into an internationally respected institution, with its
own school, dance camps for under-served youth in four cities and a second touring troupe
that eases young performers from the classroom to the stage.
While Ailey’s 1970 "Revelations" has achieved the status
of a classic, the opening work on the program fell ‘way short of that mark. Ron
Brown’s "Grace," an agitated, disjointed affair set to music of Duke
Ellington, Roy Davis, Jr. and others, was an inauspicious curtain-raiser.
Brown seems to have a penchant for rapid, jerky movement and, when he
sets it to mellow music like Ellington’s "Come Sunday," it feels very
strange. Linda Denise Evans and the company, clad in flowing white and flaming red, did
their energetic best but it was little more than a good aerobic workout, as evidenced by
the perspiration pouring down the bare chests of the men. A lot of sound and fury,
signifying very little.
In contrast, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s "C# Street –
B-Flat Avenue" was a delightful, energetic ode to music that combined the idioms of
ballet, jazz dance, swing and even a little tap to fine effect. Everything, from the
clever, colorful costuming to the rear screen projections worked to make this a jazzy,
sexy, street smart statement, fully as abstract as "Grace" but far more
exciting.
And the best came last. Just let me rave on a little more about
"Revelations" - about its opening that raises the humble plie to high art; the
lyrical pas de deux "Fix Me, Jesus," a poem in slow motion, spoiled only by
intermittent applause from the audience acknowledging a particularly tricky move; the
wonderful parasol-waving "Wade in the Water" and "I Want to Be Ready,"
a highly balletic study in power and stillness, masterfully performed by Jeffrey Gerodias.
And, if the prayer meeting finale is the most fun, "Sinner
Man," with a male trio criss-crossing the stage in front of a background of hellfire,
is the most powerful. Uri Sands, Matthew Rushing and Troy O’Neil Powell were utterly
wonderful and they sure put the fear of God in me.
Alvin Ailey has left us a fine legacy in this, as well as his numerous
other works. He also has left us a company that just gets better over time. Go see it and
don’t be surprised if you find yourself singing "Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of
Abraham" for the next couple of days. It’s standard.
Berkeley, CA, April 12, 2000 – Suzanne Weiss
