More than sixty years after Revelations was created, Ailey’s works still make that history feel startlingly present.
Almost seven decades after Alvin Ailey founded his company, Legacy brings together works from across the Ailey repertoire. Together, they make up a night of not only thrilling artistic works, but also a glimpse into Ailey’s particular way of seeing the world: from the characters at the corner of a night street, to the struggles of a man and the life of a mother, to the collective memory of a people.
Night Creature, choreographed to Duke Ellington’s music, is delightful, sensual, sexy and, at times, surprisingly humorous. One of Ailey’s best-known traits is his musicality, and here the trills and ornamentation in the music are picked up by the dancers and translated into flirtatious interactions between them, making the music an integral part that directs the story. The lyrical solo A Song for You, an excerpt from Ailey’s Love Songs, shifts the tone into something considerably more intimate. We see a man desire, reach, struggle and accept. The choreography is almost minimalist, yet it tells the story of a human being with remarkable clarity. Following A Song for You is an excerpt from the iconic Cry. Created by Ailey in 1971 as a birthday present for his mother and dedicated “to all Black women everywhere – especially our mothers”, the original work takes its soloist through sorrow and hardship towards ecstatic freedom. Yet we do not simply see an abstract figure of “the mother” or “the Black woman”. We see a woman full of character, individuality, and passion.
Ronald K. Brown’s Grace then offers a meaningful addition to the programme. Created for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the work combines modern dance with West African idioms in a spiritually charged journey towards the promised land. In the piece, Brown combines choreographic genres much like Ailey, taking us on a journey through spirituality and cultural memory.
The night ends with Revelations. If we were to talk about art that can potentially change people’s life, Revelations would be one of those works. Premiered in 1960 and performed around the world ever since, it still resonates deeply with audiences today.
In Pilgrim of Sorrow, it feels as though history is unfolding in front of the audiences’ eyes. It is visceral, affective and powerful. Fix Me, Jesus distils this into something more intimate. Tonight’s performance, performed by Caroline T. Dartey, was particularly phenomenal, as it her portrayal was gentle and genuine, yet underpinned by such strong technique that the technical difficulty of the piece almost disappears. We are allowed simply to experience the storytelling through the dance, and to be deeply moved by it. Then, Take Me to the Water retains the religious dimension but transforms the atmosphere completely. With its blue fabric, white costumes and bodies moving through an imagined baptism, it can feel almost like an Impressionist painting coming to life. Yet unlike a painting, the images onstage are filled with the vitality, individuality and vibrancy of real people. Finally, Move, Members, Move explodes into celebration. After the sorrow and spiritual searching that precede it, joy itself becomes part of the history Revelations is remembering.
From the glittering creatures prowling through Ellington’s night to the woman at the centre of Cry, from the spiritual bodies of Grace to the congregation that finally erupts into joy in Revelations, movement becomes a way of remembering, believing, desiring and being. More than sixty years after Revelations was created, these works still make that history feel startlingly present.
Legacy runs alongside Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s New Works at Sadler’s Wells Theatre until 19 September.