ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

REVIEW BY Celia Ipiotis

An enthusiastic crowd greeted the Alvin AIley Dance Company at City Center when the company coupled two works by leading Black choreographers Ronald K. Brown and Kyle Abraham along with Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece “Revelations.”

All three danced out a thread of spiritual uplift and shared community.  In Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit (2009)dedicated to Judith Jamison, each section is set to a different piece of music expressing a variety of moods. The second musical selection “What Have You Done?” grinds in on Wynton Marsalis’ taut, bluesy music from the soundtrack for Jack Johnson, the controversial Black heavyweight champion of the early 1900’s.

Conceptually, the dance unspools from a meditative humm to a joyous spiritual serenading over a curvy New Orleans style jazz vibe devotedly danced by the company.

Bumped up next to Brown, comes Kyle Abraham’s “Are You In Your Feelings.” (At this point, I will digress. Brown and a friend were seated behind me enthusiastically responding to Abraham’s piece. It’s heartening to witness a major choreographer cheer for his younger colleague.)

Set to a “mixtape” of R&B, soul and club music that pours out stories and memories of loved ones, the musical selections liberate the body. Slicing through the modern and ballet dance vocabulary of pointed feet and long arabesques, the funk pulls the bodies down into the hips or into a down to the ground “duck walk” propelled by flailing arms calling out the audience. With Revelations pulling up the final bows, it was an evening of crowd pleasers.

Although the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company was built by a man, women inspired Ailey and anchored his company. This year the company honored 4 women in an evening long tribute: Denise Jefferson, director of the Ailey School, Carmen deLavallade, muse and Ailey dancer, Sylvia Waters, director of Ailey II and Judith Jamison, renown Ailey dancer, and former Ailey Company director.

A series of excerpts captured the nature of each woman. The tangy Blues Suite taps into the steamy seduction of drink, gambling and lovers. Carmen deLavallade’s love song “Sweet Bitter Love” drew on the intense connection between 2 people expressed through Akua Noni Parker while ​”Memoria​” by Ailey paid tribute to his dear friend​ Joyce Trisler with arms open over, undulating back and hips welcoming the dancers surrounding her.

Revelations closed out the evening to shouts and dancing in seats.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis