Dance Goliath Returns in Splendor

Alvin Ailey, the famed founder of one of America’s most revered dance companies, believed “dance is for everybody”. That it’s an art that comes from the people and a gift that should be delivered back to them.  So stated Robert Battle, Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in his remarks at the Auditorium Theatre Wednesday night.  He was recalling Mr. Ailey’s perception of dance and marking the company’s long tradition of annually bringing its singular dance artistry to Chicago audiences.

Battle made the comment shortly after Are You in Your Feelings?, a monumental piece of dance choreographed by MacArthur Award winner Kyle Abraham, ended in a cascade of applause.  Abraham, who takes great effort in not repeating himself when creating new works, understands what it means to make dance that not only resonates with, but soaks into the pores of people.  Dance, with rare exception, rests on the tone and flavor of the music behind it.  It draws power and direction from the message music sends through its melody and lyrics.  Are You in Your Feelings? floats on a mixtape, a meandering compilation of contemporary music so arresting on its own that it heightens your senses and puts you on alert.  Although broadly reflective of a diverse and cosmopolitan society, the sounds coursing through the work are also deeply endemic to Black culture.  Sounds that extend well beyond soulfulness and delve into the recesses of identity.   By translating the energy and nuance of those sounds into movement, Are You in Your Feelings? becomes what it was intended to be, a bountiful celebration of Black culture and music. 

The comfortable self-awareness of the dance and its casual bursts of humor and flirtatious intrigue emphasized its closeness to everyday life. The dance’s many flights into fantastically conceived dance sequences, the language it created with shoulder rolls and blazing fast transitions certainly made for mesmerizing viewing.  But they also held a basic and undeniable familiarity as they recalled gestures and postures you might see on a night out at the club; or even on the street or a subway platform.  The key movements filling the piece spoke of swag and an iridescent assurance in self.     As one song bled into another, a new story would form in the dance and take the audience on a different unexpected and wonderful adventure.  When Shirley Brown’s deep soul classic Woman to Woman started floating through the air, wry and amused recognition could be heard filtering through the hall’s sea of seats.  Since its release in 1974, the song about one woman confronting another over the telephone about a man’s infidelity has epitomized the way love can take on a deeply possessive cast.  Seeing the song revived and interpreted into dance is a testament to the boldness of its truth and the staying power of its message.  Abraham’s astute sense of how pervasively the sentiment of Woman to Woman could reverberate through our universal heart reveals his keen understanding of the human soul.

Unlike the easy sprawl of Are You in Your Feelings?, the second work in the evening’s relatively short program was much more intimate and swept beautifully by in what seemed like seconds. As it’s choreographer, Mr. Battle introduced the piece in his comments following the first dance.  Inspired by his initial experience hearing the great operatic soprano Leontyne Price sing, he set one of her arias to dance.   Behind Unfold is Ms. Price singing Gustave Charpentier’s  Depuis le jour (From the Day). The dance looks at love at its most tentative; when it’s hesitant and perhaps even afraid.  Those feelings give the piece an urgent grace and fills it with tender tension.  Danced exquisitely by Jacquelin Harris and Kanji Segawa, Unfold made the poignancy of the music visible before ending like a dream. 

The more you see Revelations, the more amazing it becomes.  Always the closing piece of any Ailey dance company concert performance, the work can be said to be the man.  A distillation of all that Mr. Ailey had seen, felt and believed at the time he choreographed his lasting masterpiece.  Born nearly a century ago in Rogers, Texas, the world that formed him was hard and encompassed in faith.  Revelations immerses itself in the spiritual convictions that saturated his childhood and shows it to be both a shield and a weapon. Like links in a chain, each segment depends on the other to tell a story of transcendence.  A story told in overwhelming beauty and always danced on the very cusp of perfection, every performance of Revelations carries its own mystique and truth. Everyone has their own sequence among the dance’s eleven that they respond most to.  Fix Me Jesus often ranks high among them.  Danced by Sarah Daley-Perdomo and Jermaine Terry during Wednesday night’s performance, the segment glowed with the elegance and dignity that define its character.  A sublime preface to the jubilation that would eventually follow in Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham, Revelation‘s joyous finale. 

Program performances vary throughout the company’s five-day residency at the Auditorium.  Featuring works by a select cadre of esteemed choreographers including Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Jamar Roberts, Sunday afternoon’s show will exclusively profile preeminent dances created by the company’s founder, Alvin Ailey.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

March 8 – 12, 2023

The Auditorium Theatre

50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive

Chicago, IL    60605

https://auditoriumtheatre.org/events-details/alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater/