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Applause began before the curtain opened; it was eager anticipation that became truly earned by the dancers from the first step onward. The music with its clickings, clackings and generally unmelodic synthesized tonality is not of the genre that I would ever voluntarily listen to but heard and seen through the bodies of the Ailey dancers becomes absolutely right. From the first moment the piece erupts with energy and quickly brings the audience out of the everyday world and into the mood.

The stage is bare, dressed only in changes in lighting. However, while bare it is never empty - filled instead with pounding force punctuated by percussive hip hop movement infused with a breath from Africa. One section, however, is quite different, almost futuristic, rather astral, like a dance on another planet. The dancers were clothed at first in practice clothes that progressed through the piece to bright shinny tops and full-length pants in oranges, reds and yellows. This matched the dance energy which seemed full tilt at the beginning but just when one thought it was at full throttle, the dancers took it up a notch: faster, more energy, more percussion set off by stop action in the midst of cyclonic movement. It was a demonstration of seeming wild abandon that was built atop a solid structure of strength and technique.

Shining Star
Choreography: David Parsons
Music: Earth, Wind & Fire
Costumes: Ann Hould-Ward; Lighting: Howell Binkley

Everyone was in white: knee length skirts and midriffs for the women, white pants and shirts for the men. Through the ballet long white coats were added for the men which were used choreographically as a connection to the women: something to sit upon, something to move upon. At times a row of foot lights at the back of the stage created a change of color that glowed off the white costumes.

The piece consists of mesmerizing twining pas de deux between the men and women covering the spectrum from athletic to floating lifts of real beauty. However, the really captivating motif of this ballet was the oft repeated, but never tiresome, flurry of torso isolations undulating from the cervical through the thoracic to the lumbar sections of the human spine. Though anatomy class tells us that the sacral section is fairly static, it certainly didn't seem so in these dancers, the energy flowed smoothly in ripples of movement from head downward through the body. The open shirts of the men gave full effect to this sensational rhythmic breakdown. It all matched the pulsating music and became irresistible.

Interest as well as dance didn't stop at the end. The bows of the dancers to thunderous applause were fully choreographed. This was not at all the usual step forward and bow, step backward and bow. They literally danced the curtain down and the audience responded with sustained happy appreciation.

Revelations
Choreography: Alvin Ailey
Music: Traditional
Décor and Costumes: Ves Harper, Barbara Forbes; Lighting: Nicola Cernovitch

Revelations reminds me of Mozart. From the opening wedge of dancers to the final step at the end, one knows here is the hand of a master. There is no moment of lack of direction, no wondering around searching for the next step, no superfluous movement, every moment is fully realized, and ends at the perfect ending. And, just as in a Mozart symphony, as many times as one sees this masterpiece of choreography, there is always something more to see and appreciate.

The love emanating from the choreography permeates the theater and the love of the dancers propels it outward, and the return in love from the audience progresses from anticipatory to fully earned and appreciated. It's a synthesis of adoration flowing freely across the footlights. I can think of no other piece of dance in which the action on stage becomes the action in the audience: rhythmic clapping, hallooing, whistles, stomping, yelps of joy, and shouts of "bravo" and "oh yes!" I think the choreographer is smiling at this as he looks down from dance heaven. How could he not?

Matthew Rushing dancing the "I Wanna Be Ready" section alone is worth the price of the ticket and the trip to the theater. He is literally a stunning dancer. Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims are breathtaking in the pas de deux: "Fix Me Jesus." Shape flowing into shape, strength and control liberating the dancers from all the necessary underpinnings of the dance. One is only aware of consuming beauty and lines, both moving and static.

The audience was on its collective feet long before the end. Reward came in an encore that only elicited more audience response and brought delighted smiles, hand waving and spontaneous impromptu dance from the dancers.

The Ailey dancers are a shining example of total commitment, fulsome energy and I find myself watching with a constant smile. They revel in both their membership as a whole unit, but also celebrate their individuality. It becomes a mutual celebration: dancers and audience. Everyone went home happy.

The music is taped and therefore ear plug mandatory.