Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Come December in New York, two companies are annuals - New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater in "The Nutcracker" and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the City Center. By far, the Ailey Company is more exciting and has a roster of excellent dancers that are rivaled by no other. This year, for its 43rd season, from November 28 to December 31, the company, directed by Judith Jamison, presented new productions and some old favorites.
Commissioned for the February 2002 Cultural Olympiad of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games, Jamison chose as inspiration the Olympic runner Florence Griffith Joyner, known as Flo Jo. The music is an original score by Wynton Marsalis.
As a world premiere, "Here...Now," is Jamison's impression of Joyner's strength and style rather than a biographical sketch - she died of a heart-related seizure in 1998 at the age of 38. Five sections, depicting speed, strength, style, pain and heaven structure the work. The set, by Al Crawford, a long curving ramp upstage representing the runner's course, hinders the work. The "Nike" cipher logo hangs above the set. The dancers look reluctant to jump on and off the ramp because of its possible danger. It made the audience uncomfortable, as well.
"Serving Nia," another world premiere, was choreographed by Ronald K. Brown to music by Roy Brooks, Banford Marsalis, M'Bemba Bangoura and Dizzy Gillespie. It's a mixed ballet of modern, hip-hop and West-African dance. Nia, in Swahili, means "purpose," and is also a woman's name. Dancers included six women and a male trio.
Louis Falco's 1976 work, "Caravan," was seen again along with Ulysses Dove's "Episodes,"(1987) and "Bad Blood" (1986); "Shelter," (1988) by Jowole Willa Jo Zollar, a work about the deprivation of the homeless; "Sweet, Bitter Love (2000) by Carmen de Lavallade; Jamison's "Double Exposure" (2000); Dwight Rhoden's "Chocolate Sessions" (2002) and many more. With exploited classical ballet technique as his vocabulary, Alonzo King's "Following the Subtle Current Upstream," challenged the dancers who seem unchallengeable in his pull and tug, tension-filled work for three male dancers.
Donald Byrd's "Dances at the Gym," however, to music by Mio Morales, in a new production, and inspired by Jerome Robbins' "West Side Story," is an abrasive, fierce and jarring work. The roles are characters deciding weather to relate, injure or ignore each other.
But then, there was a wonderful Friday night performance of Ailey excerpts that sent shivers of delight and nostalgia. Ailey learned well from his mentor and example, the West Coast's Lester Horton. Particularly touching were the excerpts "For Bird (Charlie Parker)..with Love," that included Dudley Williams, in a cameo role, the inveterate principal dancer, who left the Martha Graham company for Ailey with the words: "A Greek god I'm not."
The Ailey school's expansion plans have been delayed due to New York's economic crisis. The goal of a building with several studios is planned for the northwest corner of Ninth Avenue at 55th Street, at the cost of a $60 million capital campaign, including an endowment, to add to the $47.5 million already raised. Sound exorbitant? George Faison has a newly renovated firehouse on 124th Street; Baryshnikov is renovating in the West 30s; Mark Morris is cradled in Brooklyn. It may take a bit more time, but the Ailey team will reach their goal despite the cost of Manhattan property. •