The second night of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s annual return to the Auditorium stage began somewhat perilously. The opening piece, Stack Up, choreographed by Chicago native Talley Beatty has been in the company’s repertoire for years and has consistently enjoyed accolades for its craftsmanship since it debuted in 1982. Inspired by the clamorous dissonance of urban life, it’s visually vibrant and pulses with rhythm and the knowing attitude of street life. At its core, you feel it’s meant to be fast, sharp, fluid, precise, slick. Instead, on this night, the piece seemed inexplicably burdened and somehow mysteriously tethered when it should have been in flight. Lead dancers could not achieve the lifts that they were clearly capable of and the precision you come to rely on from this highly-esteemed company was in low supply. The staunch spirit and natural talent of a few of the dancers enabled flashes of stylistic bravado to occasionally peek through and allowed glimpses of what the dance could be.
A sea change followed the intermission. Victoria, a work choreographed for the Ailey company by Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramirez Sansano stretched one’s understanding of what this dance company is.
Modern dance can seem challenging if you’re not accustomed to recognizing complex emotions through a dancer’s movements. Dark and at points anguished, Victoria called to mind Picasso’s blue period and his painting, The Old Guitarist, depicting a blind old man sitting forlornly in profile playing his guitar on the streets of Barcelona. He appears spent; but not defeated. Musically back dropped by a rewriting of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, the interplay of music and dance communicated struggle and perseverance. It was the beauty of the dance and the beauty of the music which gave Victoria its appeal. When talking about the process of creating dance, Sansano said he believed beauty was a weapon against forces in the world that stifle individual fulfillment and that this specific dance was a reflection of where we find ourselves today.
To balance the contemplative splendor of Victoria, Ella was all spirit and joy. Samantha Figgens and Chalvar Monteiro brought perfect synchronization and a priceless delight in the process of dance to Ella Fitzgerald’s rapid fire scat riddled recording of Airmail Special.
It’s been 58 years since Alvin Ailey’s masterwork Revelations made its premier. Since then its morphed to iconic status and been seen by 23 million people around the world. No other modern dance holds that distinction. Because its center is so tied to a specific culture and its unique tribulations, one could easily wonder why the rest of the world finds it so enthralling.
At over 30 minutes long, Revelations is more than simply a dance. It’s theater. Chronicling a history characterized by unfathomable hardship, the work’s real message is about an incomprehensible endurance that ultimately leads to triumph. Everyone in the world can relate to impediments that thwart growth or happiness or personal completion. Revelations puts that struggle into context and shows that, in the African American culture at least, religious faith is both the balm and the means by which we can prevail. And as dance, Revelations could not be what it is without its bedrock, traditional black gospel music.
Broken up into three parts, each is saturated in Ailey’s choreographic signature and each was elevated by exceptional performance. You would never guess from the gleam in the dancers’ eyes that they were performing a piece decades older then themselves or that the company has danced it thousands of time. When Akua Noni Parker and Jermaine Terry assumed the stage with Fix Me, Jesus late in the first part, their self-assurance and talent shifted the performance to an even higher and more thrilling gear.
Sinner Man danced by Samuel Lee Roberts, Chalvar Monteiro and Renaldo Maurice was particularly captivating for its use of lighting. Washing the stage in a distinct green glow gave the dancers bodies a metallic sheen that served to accentuate their movements. Nicola Cernovitch’s lighting approach was daring , but worked. Her boldness was matched by the charm in seeing a dancer of a major dance company on stage wearing glasses. It’s nice to see that the Ailey company has no qualms about keeping it real.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
March 7 – 11, 2018
Auditorium Theatre
50 E. Congress Pkwy.
Chicago, IL 60605