© Andrew Ecoles 'Winter in Lisbon' reviews 'Night Creature' reviews 'Treading' reviews 'Revelations' reviews Gerodias in reviews Gilmore in reviews recent Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre reviews more Anjuli Bai reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

Surely one of the most difficult tasks is to inherit such a compendium of challenges: artistic, creative, emotive, technical. It is an inheritance riddled with hazard. Were it not for the grace, skill, knowledge and love of artistic director Judith Jamison we would not still be enjoying the gifts that Alvin Ailey created. She has not simply kept the works in good order; she has them breathing with enthusiastic life. I am not sure how she does it. Not only are the dances infused with this freshness as if newborn, but also the dancers are alive with conviction and energy. She has worked a wonder.

Into the repertory of Ailey creations, Jamison has also intermixed choreographic works of others that expand the company's horizons but never dilute its distinctive heritage. She chooses well, the individual parts of the program fit together like a fine tapestry.

"The Winter in Lisbon" - Choreography: Billy Wilson; Music: Dizzy Gillespie

In the "Opening Theme," twelve dancers are led on first by one male dancer, then another, all in multi-colored shirts and trousers for the men, the women in sleeveless dresses. Movement is slowed with stops at percussive upbeats. The bare stage and black backdrop are occasionally relieved by smoky atmospherics that evoke perhaps a run-down dance hall in a beachy part of town. The jazz music brings on the mood; one's imagination does the rest. Dissolve to second part "San Sabastian" danced by three men: Jeffrey Gerodias, Clifton Brown, Vernard Gilmore; and two women: Cheryl-Rowley-Gaskins and Venus Hall. All five are superb, well matched, and carry out the theme.

The third part "Lisbon" is a sinuous, smoky pas de deux performed by Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell and Clifton Brown. Pick a place in your imagination: a night draped lonely bar, meet someone who looks like a winner, dance together and then go home alone. When he invites her, she responds fully, but then in the end gives him only his hat, which he accepts in disappointment and despair. Fisher-Harrell is a marvel of feminine wiles, coaxing, teasing. "Here am I," she says, but her heart isn't part of the bargain while he wants it all. Both dancers were a true pleasure to watch; strengths hidden beneath the characterization and the characterizations never flagged.

The company comes together for the fifth section "Monteca" - and they fill the stage with the spirited dancing that is so marvelously at the center of their being, with an almost South American beat in the music. It's a wonderful counterpoint to the poignant longing of the previous "Lisbon" pas de deux, and a terrific opening for a program of gems to come.

"Night Creature" - Choreographer: Alvin Ailey; Music: Duke Ellington

With only a sprinkling of stars on a black backdrop, the creatures of the night come "on" to dance. In blue and silver unitards for the men and dresses for the women (designed by Barbara Forbes after Jane Greenwood) the "creatures" are ready for action. Visible are Ailey's hallmarks: a wedge of dancers, with flaunting hips, weaving torsos, and dancing hands. His use of the hands is not as an adornment but in making statements within a full language from clenched fists to splayed fingers. Absolutely Ailey. Then right in the midst of shimmying shoulders suddenly a full stage of classical ballet: supported penchés, arabesques, beautifully stretched feet, soft rounded arms and to complete the pattern, a true ballet petit allegro enchainement, almost a study in sissonnes along with ballottés and battu. How easily the dancers went from genre to genre, making it all come from the inside.
 

Renee Robinson and Jeffrey Gerodias led the company, the brightest stars in a starry firmament: fluid Ellington, often classical ballet, always Ailey.

"Treading" - Choreography: Elisa Monte; Music: Steve Reich; Dancers: Bahiyah Sayyed-Gaines and Glenn A Sims

This pas de deux begins with one dancer pulling the other out of the blacked darkness of the stage into the light, until they begin to dance together as one rather than separately. It's almost as if imagining the mating dance of two snakes: twining, slow moving, making shapes rather than lines, always interacting. At first the monotony of the constantly repeating musical phrases is uncomfortable, but in the end adds to the mesmerizing effect of the whole. How many ways can two bodies interact? The dancers coil around one another, supportive, never still, always evolving. The core strength needed is phenomenal, and it is not only a test of artistic skill but also a lesson in superb control. What is achieved are two artists who become one shape, one mind, one soul, and it is a surprise when they appear again as two distinct individuals to take their well deserved applause.

"Revelations" - Choreography: Alvin Ailey; Music "Traditional"

Opening with Ailey's wedge of dancers and immediately employing his wonderful language of the hand, this work instantly takes the audience to a special time and place. With few props: some chairs, a parasol, a hat, we are taken to the heart of an entire people and culture. Great choreography and convinced artists will do that. One gesture less and "Revelations" would be diminished, one gesture more and it would be superfluous.

Having seen this piece many times (I love it too much to count), I gave myself the pleasure of leisurely enjoying the "peripheries." The "Wade in the Water" section is a choreography of cloth. Two long strips of blue and white run from wing to wing across the stage, rising and falling like the tides of a river, alternating, undulating, inviting baptism and joy. The ruffles that hang from the edge of the parasol streams out as the dancer runs about and the hot breeze of the South is visible. Floppy straw hats for the women in "Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham" add emphasis to the staccato nodding heads of the women as they jab pointed fingers at their menfolk. And those fluttering fans: vigorous as they gossip, and softer when cooling the "heat."
 

There are no peripheries to watch in "Sinner Man" danced by Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Dion Wilson and Vernard Gilmore - it's a tour de force of explosive dance. Powerful, fast, demanding - typical of Ailey's command of choreography for the male dancer. One after the other they jump, twist, soar and capture space and the stage. This is full out, never letting up: male prowess at its best.

To me, "Revelations" is a perfect creation and I have never seen it fail to bring the most sedate audience to its collective feet, clapping, singing and rocking its soul. The dancers respond with a generous encore of the final segment.

And that's the fourth blessing: a decades long love affair with a closing work to a well-chosen program, that sends us home with a smile. Can anyone watch "Revelations" and not smile?