CELEBRATING ALVIN AILEY

Alvin Ailey's story is remarkable. Born to a single 17-year-old mother in segregated Texas during the Depression, he went on to found one of the most successful modern dance troupes of all time. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been very busy celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the company, which Ailey founded in New York in 1958. Following a 26-city American tour, the company returns to Brooklyn this week (June 9th-14th) to perform the works that have made them famous--"Revelations", especially.

"Revelations" remains remarkable nearly 40 years after Ailey created it. This work stands above all others in his repertory, which is known for being uneven. The "truth is that he created one great piece, the 1960 'Revelations' (and it is very great, on a par with the best of Balanchine and Graham), and never again made anything half as interesting," wrote Joan Acocella in 2001. But to see it is to understand Ailey's legacy, his contribution to dance and his gift to African-American self-possession in the arts.

Teresa Wiltz writes movingly about this:

I remember looking down from my balcony seat, staring at the swirl of black, brown, beige and white bodies on stage. There was the supremely elegant Judith Jamison and the exquisitely lyrical Dudley Williams, impish Masazumi Chaya and gorgeous Mari Kajiwara, with her butt-length hair and her thunder thighs.

I saw them do "Revelations" and "Rainbow Round My Shoulder". I saw them dancing barefoot, and in regular clothes, and to music that sounded totally different from the likes of Tchaikovsky.

I saw all that, and I fell completely and utterly in love. I saw them dance, and I saw my own brown self reflected back at me. I saw them dance, and it made me want to dance, too, in the most lovesick, cracked-out way imaginable. They were beyond beautiful, and I wanted to be a part of that beauty. Even now, years later, long after I've retired from my own dance career, long after Ailey and many of his dancers have passed on, whenever I see them perform, I feel this sense of yearning.

Alistair Macaulay at the New York Times has made the case that this is an especially ripe moment to be celebrating Ailey's legacy. The "America we see in the Ailey repertory is a 'Yes we can' vision," he suggested, "and it has a great deal to do with aspects of transcendence." Timely yet also awkwardly timeless. And certainly worth seeing for yourself.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at BAM, Howard Gilman Opera House, June 9th to 14th, New York.

~ EMILY BOBROW

Picture credit: "Revelations", by Andrew Eccles