The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (AAADT) swept onto the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on June 6 for what has been described as the “long-awaited return to the BAM stage after more than a decade” and was embraced by an audience that repeatedly greeted the dancers with heartwarming displays of affection and thunderous applause.
The six-day, two-program season opened with works by choreographers Kyle Abraham, Ronald K. Brown, and Twyla Tharp and ended on June 11 with a program of Ailey classics. On the all-Ailey program, the iconic masterpiece “Revelations,” shared the bill with “Cry,” Ailey’s tribute to his mother, Lula Elizabeth, and “all Black women everywhere—especially our mothers,” which was first performed in 1971 by the AAADT’s legendary star, Judith Jamison. That program also included Ailey’s “Night Creature,” an effervescent dance inspired by the elegantly evocative jazz of Duke Ellington.
Capping off the Ailey-program evening was “Survivors,” a piece he choreographed with Mary Barnett, that honors the courage of anti-apartheid freedom-fighters South Africa’s late President Nelson Mandela and the charismatic Winnie Mandela, who was honored at BAM in 1990 when her then-husband called for an end to apartheid. As Ailey dancer Jeroboam Bozeman told a Brooklyn reporter, “‘Survivors’ pays homage not only to Nelson Mandela but to all of our ancestors who have paved the way so that we can create change.”
While the Ailey company’s New York seasons usually take place at New York City Center in midtown Manhattan, this brief change of venue paid homage to BAM’s equally special place in the history of both the man and the company. Ailey, the dancer, first appeared on BAM’s stage in 1956 two years before launching the AAADT at the height of the turbulent civil rights era. For a brief time in 1969, BAM became the AAADT’s home when its growing popularity catapulted it from NYC’s 300-seat Clark Center for the Performing Arts to the almost 3,000-seat Brooklyn theater, where it was embraced by the community and greeted nightly by a packed house.
Anyone who says history doesn’t repeat itself hasn’t been following the news lately, but at a time when the political climate bears some resemblance (with significant differences) to the days of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power eras, the internationally acclaimed AAADT once again packed ’em in at BAM after being away for some 10 years. Opening night kicked off with choreographer Ron Brown’s “Dancing Spirit.” The dance begins with a gracefully subtle accumulation of simple movements as a line of dancers slowly crosses the stage on a diagonal that evolves into more complex movement patterns distinguished by an elegant diasporic blend of traditional West African dance’s full-bodied articulations and modern dance’s spiraling turns, fluid arabesques, and gently defined lines. The combination gives “Dancing Spirit” an air of solemnity and reverence for the human spirit.
The audience was so moved that when the piece ended, they leapt to their feet, filling the theater with thunderous applause for the performances of Constance Stamatiou, Sarah Daley-Perdomo, Khalia Campbell, Ashley Kaylynn Green, Yannick Lebrun, Vernard J. Gilmore, Chalvar Monteiro, Renaldo Maurice, and Xavier Mack. The outburst of appreciation only intensified when the choreographer and his company’s associate director, Acell Cabuag, stepped onstage for a bow.
The AAADT’s smooth transition from the mesmerizing flow of “Dancing Spirit” into Twyla Tharp’s rollicking “Roy’s Joys” (1997) with its up-tempo, jazzy mix of vernacular dance, ballet, and modern is a testament to the troupe’s technical dexterity. Without skipping a beat, they captured the fast-paced ebullience of 1950s Lindy-hoppers in a work that matched the “this joint is jumpin’” joy-filled energy of the music of jazz trumpeter Roy Eldridge. While few can match the speed of the legendary Savoy Ballroom Lindy-hoppers airborne steps, the Ailey dancers came mighty close with their deft handling of awe-inspiring flips, turns, and lifts that caused audible gasps from the audience. Ailey dancers James Gilmer, Sarah Daley-Perdomo, Jacquelin Harris, Miranda Quinn, Deidre Rogan, Patrick Coker, Chalvar Monteiro, Christopher R. Wilson, and Solomon Dumas breathed life into a noted choreographer’s work that hasn’t been seen for a while and, although it showed sparks of brilliance in spots, seemed to need a bit of tweaking and editing.
The program closed with a bang thanks to Kyle Abraham’s brilliantly imaginative tribute to Black love, “Are Your In Your Feelings?” with its playful use of gestures that speak volumes and dance moves that have “today” written all over them. The Ailey dancers’ facile execution of Abraham’s expressive choreography captured the multifaceted scope of romantic interactions in a socially fluid environment, where some wear their hearts on their sleeves and others hide behind the shield of flippantly subtle gestures, shoulder shrugs, and casually flicking wrists. Tunes from a broad musical timeline set the tone and scene, and provided a narrative as the movements of dancers Caroline T. Dartey, Ghrai DeVore-Stokes, Solomon Dumas, Belén Indhira Pereyra, James Gilmer, Michael Jackson, Jr., Renaldo Maurice, Ashley Mayeux, Miranda Quinn, and Deidre Rogan spoke in no-holds-barred, get-down conversations, capturing a kaleidoscope of feelings. Tying it all up with a heart-warming, “Love Actually” kind of note, the dance ends with a charismatic on-again, off-again couple whose drama has been woven throughout, portrayed by Ashley Kaylynn Green and Chalvar Monteiro. When they kiss and make up, it brought a delightful evening to a close.