Photos by Paul Kolnik
Celebrity Series of Boston presents Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Matthew Rushing, Interim Artistic Director. At the Boch Center Wang Theatre May 2-5, 2024.
By Linda Chin
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a cultural treasure celebrated for its founder Alvin Ailey’s choreographic genius, his passion for having all people represented and included, and for giving new voices to new choreographers, marks its 65th anniversary with a coast-to-coast tour in 2024. The Boston tour stop’s five-show run at the Boch Center Wang Theatre includes two premieres and a rare revival, and each performance closes with Ailey’s signature piece ‘Revelations.’ The repertory reflects dance diversity and showcases the dancers’ impeccable technique and ability to masterfully move from one dance genre to another.
At the performance I attended, the three-part program started with choreographer Alonzo King’s ‘Following the Subtle Current Upstream,’ which was first presented in 2000 and recreated in 2023. Set to music by Indian table master Zakir Hussein, American avant-garde composer Miguel Fransconi and South African vocalist Miriam Makeba, this piece showcased the dancers’ strength, versatility, and training in both classical ballet and contemporary technique. Lighting by Al Crawford was simple and subtle, and provided a strong contrast for the female dancers’ sunny yellow-bodiced costumes (by Robert Rosenwasser) to pop.
Choreographer Ronald K. Brown’s 2009 piece ‘Dance Spirit’ was also updated in 2023. Brown’s choreography blends is a fusion of Afro-Cuban and modern dance. It is scored to music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead (alt-rockers), and War (a 60s funk-rock group). Lighting by Clifton Taylor was simple and elegant, a lovely backdrop for the women’s skirts in ombre shades of white to blue and balloon-bottomed purple pantsuits.
Ailey’s signature piece ‘Revelations’ a montage of ten dances first performed in 1960, is the finale at every performance. Resplendent in costumes by Ves Harper, radiant with Nichole Cernovitch’s lighting design, the first segment, ‘Pilgrim of Sorrow,’ is a sculpture of human forms, shades of warm pumpkin orange, leafy brown dancewear that complements the dancers’ outstretched palms, synchronized angular arm movements showcasing sculpted limbs. In ‘Take Me to the Water,’ the mood grows meditative, the audience marveling at the dancers’ fluid movements, then festive with the highly anticipated ‘Wade in the Water’ and waves of activity. The last piece in the set, ‘I Wanna Be Ready,’ where the spotlight is on a single dancer who appears to be floating, is mesmerizing.
Lastly, in the gospel-inspired ‘Move, Members, Move’ (with dresses redesigned by Barbara Forbes), bright yellows fill you with the warm and fuzzies of an earlier period, less technology and more playfulness, a feeling that things are in balance and right in the world. By the closing, crowd-pleasing, showstopping number ‘Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,’ the freedom and unabashed joy the dancers exude has broken through the fourth wall – artists and audiences clapping, dancing, and rocking their souls as one, grateful to Alvin Ailey, to be alive. The show concluded its run on May 5th.
