The annual appearance of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre is a harbinger of spring. It is also the perfect marriage of two entities that are American cultural icons.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has made the Chicago appearance a part of its annual tour for more than 60 years. The legacy of its founder, Alvin Ailey, the company has been hailed as a National Treasure. Auditorium Theatre, built in 1889 by the renowned architectural duo of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, is a National Historic Landmark. There could not have been a more perfect pairing on a recent rainy early spring evening.
This year’s offerings were a heady mix of tried-and-true Ailey classics such as Cry, Ailey’s tribute to his mother, which he expressly wrote for his muse, dancer, and Artistic Director Emeritus Judith Jamison. Other works included those by current Artistic Director Robert Battle, such as his Unfold, American Dance classics such as Paul Taylor’s DUET, modern works by guiding lights such as Twyla Tharp and her Roy’s Joys, works by new artists like Jamar Roberts and his In a Sentimental Mood and acclaimed choreographer and Black culturist Kyle Abraham and Are You In Your Feelings? Each program was concluded with Alvin Ailey’s 1960 masterpiece Revelations. No matter how many times you see this epic piece, it never ceases to move. It is not only one of the most beloved works in the modern dance repertoire; it is a living monument to the human spirit.
A weekend program began with Jamar Roberts’ In a Sentimental Mood. Set to Duke Ellington’s original song of the same title, intermingled with avant garde interpretations of jazz standards by composer Rafiq Bhatia, ‘Mood’ is an intimate emotional excursion into the complex inner workings of a couple’s relationship and all its complexities. Played out on a stylized set designed to reflect the confines of domestic life, it follows the dancers on a roller coaster ride of emotions through love, desire, rejection, reconciliation, alienation, and resignation. The mix of music styles both past and present, and the setting of the dance in a room with no particular design period shows the timelessness of human emotion and the age-old desire for connectivity.
You didn’t have to read the program to know that DUET is the work of the inimitable Paul Taylor. The clean, classic lines and subtle flashes of modernity are the hallmarks of his genius. Set to the music of Franz Josef Haydn, this is what the art of the dance is all about. Pure, simple, yet all encompassing, the movements are perfectly contoured as if Taylor were creating a sculpture in motion. Dancers move in concert, displaying the everlasting power of love.
Kyle Abraham’s Are You in Your Feelings? has all of the verve of the younger generation. Set to a mix tape of hip-hop, soul and R&B, this is the new spirit that reverberates throughout modern Black culture. It speaks to the perseverance of a people and celebrates their renewed sense of identity and purpose.
The program ended with Revelations. Although I have seen this work almost every year since I first saw Judith Jamison perform it in a benefit performance for the Urban League at the Chicago Theatre in 1969, and recently saw it again at the season opener at City Center last December, I was still moved to tears.
I wanted to go back to the Auditorium to see Survivors by Alvin Ailey and Mary Barnett. A tribute to Nelson Mandela with music by jazz legends Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, this is a powerful work that is another cultural landmark from the Ailey company. It was the centerpiece for the opening program of their national touring season, which began last December.
The company will be in Berkeley, California at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall April 11-16. It would be worth a trip to Oakland or San Francisco to catch them. They’re just that good!
For more visit alvinailey.org.