{"id":1243,"date":"2012-12-26T14:05:31","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T19:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=1243"},"modified":"2012-12-28T10:17:08","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T15:17:08","slug":"getting-down-with-ailey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2012\/12\/getting-down-with-ailey\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Down With Ailey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yannick

Yannick LeBrun of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Kyle Abraham’s Another Story<\/em>. Photo: Paul Kolnik<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine a night at City Center watching the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater when the spectators cheer at the curtain calls and applaud certain stunning dancers or sections of a dance, but don\u2019t whoop and holler in the middle of a serious (even reverent) passage. Imagine an evening in which electric high jumps, long balances, and legs kicking the sky are worked into the choreographic fabric and not presented with an eye for our approval.<\/p>\n

The night I\u2019m talking about is one that displayed a world premiere by the extremely up-and-coming Kyle Abraham, the company debuts of Garth Fagan\u2019s 1979 From Before<\/i> and Robert Battle\u2019s 1998 Strange Humors<\/i>, and Ronald K. Brown\u2019s Grace<\/i>, which the company premiered in 1999.<\/p>\n

The Ailey dancers are so fine, so accomplished, so charming, so committed to giving their all\u2014and we love them for this\u2014that often their capacity for simplicity and nuanced performing doesn\u2019t get explored. I have to hand it to Robert Battle, now in his second season as artistic director, for broadening the repertory of Ailey classics with interesting choices of new and established works. Ailey had in mind a repertory company from the start, and his selections of other choreographers were often bold ones, as were those of his successor, Judith Jamison. Not for the Ailey the problems faced by the companies of Martha Graham and Jos\u00e9 Lim\u00f3n when their sole choreographers died.<\/p>\n

All the pieces on the December 19th<\/sup> program eschewed balleticisms; they also re-textured modern-dance virtuosity, giving the steps an African or Caribbean tang. You see dancers bending low\u2014hips swinging, knees folding, legs wide apart, feet hitting the ground resiliently or scudding along it. Floor moves referencing hip-hop occasionally sneaked into the weave of the choreography.<\/p>\n

Abraham enters Ailey\u2019s domain with reverence for the dancers and the company profile. Another Night<\/i> is a little less adventurous and a little more showy than pieces he makes for his own small group, but it\u2019s smart, beguiling, and finely constructed\u2014 slipping casually but elegantly in and out of the terrific recording by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers of Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli\u2019s \u201cA Night in Tunisia.\u201d\u00a0 The four women and six men who populate it wear bright-colored, individualized attire by Naoka Nagata that would look fine at any hot-weather neighborhood party, although the handsome blue dress for ringleader-hostess Jacqueline Green could do just fine for cocktails at a chic lounge.<\/p>\n

\"(L

Watching Jacqueline Green (L to R): Renaldo Gardner, Kirven James Boyd, Samuel Lee Roberts, Aisha Mitchell, Jamar Roberts, Belen Pereyra, Yannick Lebrun, Hope Boykin, Antonio Douthit in Another Night<\/em>. Photo: Paul Kolnik<\/p><\/div>\n

One of Abraham\u2019s smart decisions was to make Another Night<\/i> a gathering. That is, the dancers behave as if they were part of a friendly group at an occasion for dancing; they perform for us all right\u2014and the spatial design acknowledges it\u2014but more importantly, they perform for and with one another. When they leave the stage, they convey the decision to do so with looks or gestures that say, \u201ccome on, let\u2019s go get a drink\u201d or \u201cthe floor is all yours, baby.\u201d\u00a0 Renaldo Gardner saunters in with a mostly-eaten bag of chips and hands the leavings to a couple of women so he can dance.<\/p>\n

Occasionally the performers pause and give the impression of listening to the drum solo or the piano. They watch one another dancing, maybe joining in if they feel the urge. At one point, the gorgeous Green, all by herself onstage, is fluidly deconstructing her hips and shoulders and sweeping her arms around her long, slim body when Jamar Roberts happens by. He likes what he sees, tries out a move. She stops, sizes him up, and gives her approval. OK, he can join her and learn her steps. Which he does with zest.<\/p>\n

The movement is full-bodied\u2014loose and easy in manner, but precisely designed, and the piece rides on excellent contrasts and overlaps among brief solos, duets, trios, and larger group dances. Abraham and the performers give the impression that this get-together is happening in a space larger than the stage\u2014that beyond the wings there\u2019s a boardwalk or a boulevard full of other enticements waiting to be explored. In the end, the gang gathers to watch Green create some cool beauty, then\u2014so long\u2014they\u2019re off. She keeps dancing.<\/p>\n

\"Belen

Belen Bereyra in Garth Fagan’s From Before<\/em>. Photo: Paul Kolnik<\/p><\/div>\n

Fagan\u2019s From Before<\/i> makes an even stronger point of showing the individuality of its performers, even though it was made in 1978 for his Rochester-based company and has grown a little more populous on entering the AAADT\u2019s repertory. Sixteen dancers instead of ten come and go in what Fagan once identified as an exploration of his West Indies heritage with the decorative elements stripped away. The drums and bells and rattles in Ralph MacDonald\u2019s wonderful original score pulse along in accumulating repetitive patterns, while male voices intermittently chant in counterpoint to them. The performers wear simple, variously colored unitards, and the patterns they form and dissolve are clean, clean, clean.<\/p>\n

What seems remarkable is the complexity Fagan draws out of simplicity. He doesn\u2019t stuff the choreography with movements, and the steps in each mini-section acquire new luster when echoed in different configurations. This piece shows his mastery of visual dynamics. He knows how to let your eyes rest and then startle them with something new. Occasionally he has dancers pause for a surprisingly long moment or pits background against foreground. Five performers freeze in stop-motion positions, while Linda Celeste Sims, treading in place downstage, undulates her body in uncanny ways. Late in From Before<\/i>, Yannick Lebrun appears for a mini-solo that includes a step we haven\u2019t seen yet: he shoots into a straight-up jump, legs together, arms spread to the side like the wings of a plane; he looks as if he\u2019s been launched into space by an invisible force.<\/p>\n

\"Jamar

Jamar Roberts in Fagan’s From Before<\/em>. Photo: Paul Kolnik<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0From Before<\/i> works beautifully as a program opener because it introduces you to many of the dancers in brief solos, and each of these is distinctive. One solo features a particular arm gesture; in another, the dancer spends a lot of time with his skittering feet wide apart and his knees bent. Belen Pereya, getting down, pays attention to a particular way of kicking a leg out to the side. Kelly Robotham introduces a widespread stance, balancing on her heels. Roberts, a major presence in the piece, begins it by circling the stage and departing, while Robotham and Glenn Allen Sims stand quietly at the back of the stage. Roberts takes space-devouring strides, pulsing his shoulders and ribcage forward and back so rapidly that they all but vibrate.<\/p>\n

Alicia Graf Mack, Sarah Daley, Vernard J. Gilmore, Jermaine Terry, and Marcus Jarrell Willis\u00a0are the first to begin travelling in various channeled paths\u2014walking with slightly bent knees, kicking out a foot to take each step and undulating their torsos. It\u2019s a simple step, but as others gradually join, a passage evoking urban foot traffic gradually becomes an orderly promenade. The audience applauds the immaculate unison\u2014as well they might.<\/p>\n

The Ailey dancers perform From Before<\/i> with dedication, intensity, and precision.\u00a0 Roberts does an excellent job with the role that Fagan created for the matchless Norwood Pennewell, although he doesn\u2019t have quite the slippery ease and unwavering balances that marked Pennewell\u2019s\u00a0 performing in the piece (who does?).\u00a0 L.C. Sims, a marvelously eloquent dancer, goes a little overboard with the flirtatious, self-satisfaction induced by the magically limber dialogue between her hips and her shoulders.<\/p>\n

\"Samuel

Samuel Lee Roberts(L) and Kirven James Boyd in Robert Battle’s Strange Humors<\/em>. Photo: Paul Kolnik<\/p><\/div>\n

Battle\u2019s Strange Humors<\/i> is a smart, athletic duet for two men; they\u2019re combative, but in synch, willing to slip from confrontation into unison. John Mackey\u2019s score begins with a leisurely passage for cello, and Kirven James Boyd and Samuel Lee Roberts start off slowly, with individual statements to what? The morning air, maybe. They perform the big, bold steps close to each other in a small area of turf. Their combat isn\u2019t literal, and no one thinks about winning. Fierce fellows, they open their mouths wide and yell, or don\u2019t yell. Just when you\u2019re lulled by their macho give and take, they face front, plant their feet wide apart, and fall, stiff-legged, straight backward.<\/p>\n

\"Ailey

Ailey dancers in Ronald K. Brown’s Grace<\/em>, Linda Celeste Sims left front. Photo: Paul Kolnik<\/p><\/div>\n

The audience loves Brown\u2019s Grace. <\/i>Led by L.C. Sims\u2014 a no-nonsense spiritual guide with an eye on distant goals\u2014the dancers voyage across the stage in groups. Some wear white, some wear red, and, although they\u2019re all garbed in white at the end, nothing portrays those in red as especially hard-struggling sinners. There\u2019s a last-minute flurry of doubt by Gilmore (in white), but Sims isn\u2019t having it. To luscious musical selections by Duke Ellington, Roy Davis, Jr., and others, the eleven\u00a0 travel\u2014bodies ablaze, limbs laboring\u2014dancing\u00a0in and out the \u201cdoorway\u201d of scrim at the back that lifts every time they\u2019re bound\u2014however temporarily\u2014 for glory. And glorious they are: Sims, Demetia Hopkins, Matthew Rushing (as a guest artist), Antonio Douthit, Ghrai DeVore, Guillermo Asca, Rachel McLaren, G.A. Sims, Boyd, Pereyra, and Gilmore.<\/p>\n

The AAADC is losing two invaluable members this season. Sharon Gersten Luckman is stepping down after eighteen years as the company\u2019s visionary and superbly efficient Executive Director, and years before that in the organization in other capacities (she may be the sole woman in such a position who wears her hair in a graying pigtail down to her waist\u2014wisdom meets open-mindedness).\u00a0 The marvelous Ren\u00e9e Robinson gave her last performance on December 9 after 31 years in the company, and the only current AAADC member to have worked under Ailey himself. The leading role in Grace<\/i> was made on her, and she performed the work\u2019s opening solo on the occasion of her receiving a Dance Magazine <\/i>Award on December 3. You could see resolve, strength, and vision shining through her at every moment. She\u2019s moving on to new endeavors\u2014accent on the \u201cmoving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine a night at City Center watching the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater when the spectators cheer at the curtain calls and applaud certain stunning dancers or sections of a dance, but don\u2019t whoop and holler in the middle of a serious (even reverent) passage. Imagine an evening in which electric high jumps, long balances, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[533,535,540,539,126,541,537,534,536,538],"class_list":{"0":"post-1243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-contemporary-dance","8":"tag-alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater","9":"tag-garth-fagan","10":"tag-jamar-roberts","11":"tag-judith-green","12":"tag-kyle-abraham","13":"tag-linda-celeste-sims","14":"tag-renee-robinson","15":"tag-robert-battle","16":"tag-ronald-k-brown","17":"tag-sharon-gersten-luckman","18":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}