{"id":246842,"date":"2026-04-01T15:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/246842\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:38:11","slug":"awesome-incredible-and-amazing-alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/246842\/","title":{"rendered":"Awesome, Incredible, And Amazing Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA powerhouse of artistic excellence, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater carries forward a legacy of African American strength, resilience and joy through the power of movement.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u2014Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Alvin<\/a><\/p>\n

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater \u2013 Dandara Veiga in Medhi Walerskis\u2019 \u201cBlink of An Eye\u201d \u2013 Photo by Christopher Duggan.<\/p>\n

Opening night, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 7:30p.m., Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater<\/a> demonstrated all of this and more!!!!!! The program opened with Blink of An Eye, choreographed by Medhi Walerski<\/a>, staged by Valentina Scaglia to music by Johan Sebastian Bach, performed by Itzhak Perlman.\u00a0 \u00a0The curtains open to a bare stage with a bar of lights providing minimal lighting.\u00a0 Suddenly the dancers appear. The female dancers are costumed in leotards; the men are clothed in black pants and all wear flesh-colored socks.\u00a0 The lighting slowly brightens and seems to capture and highlight the muscles of each dancer.\u00a0 Their bare torsos, arms, and legs seem to glisten.\u00a0 The sheer athleticism of the movement is remarkable and provokes a chorus of oohs, aahs, and gasps from the audience. They run, jump, slip, slide, turn, and, from time to time, they appear to be skating. Whatever they are doing it is apparent that they are ALWAYS in complete control and able to immediately stop, in the blink of an eye. The movement, music, and dancers merge to create a story of endless coming together and moving apart at breakneck speed.\u00a0 When these dancers run, they run like track stars continually covering the entire stage.\u00a0 When they stop, they often stop in a straight line and before you know it, they are suddenly scattered across the stage into frozen sculptures that seem to melt into long, languid movements or jumps that create an allusion of flying in midair.\u00a0 I am sure that Miranda Quinn performed the slowest and lowest fourth position plie I have ever seen, bending all the way down to hell and slowly rising to heaven without so much as a wobble, shake, or stutter.\u00a0 It was magnificent.\u00a0 Dancers performed attitude turns done amid elaborate movement phrases while holding the ankle of the foot in attitude.\u00a0 Several dancers executed a variation on barrel turns to the floor with the backs of artists appearing to literally wrap around the movement.\u00a0 In the blink of an eye dancers moved between perfect unison and a cacophony of unique shapes and movements made even more interesting with nuanced arms and hand movements accenting beginnings and endings of phrases.\u00a0 Intricate duets and solos with lifts that seem to come from nowhere fast, slow, precise, difficult all performed with total abandon and perfection.\u00a0 The end came, in the blink of an eye, as the dancers seemed to all lean back, chests to the heavens, falling into darkness.<\/p>\n

\"Alvin<\/a><\/p>\n

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater \u2013 Alicia Graf Mack and Jamar Roberts in Judith Jamisons\u2019 \u201cA Case of You\u201d (excerpt) \u2013 Photo by Paul Kolnik.<\/p>\n

After a brief pause, A Case of You began in silence.\u00a0 It is an excerpt from Judith Jamison\u2019s<\/a> 2005\u202fReminiscin\u2019<\/a>\u202f and danced to Diana Krall\u2019s\u202frendition of the classic Joni Mitchell song.\u00a0 Sometimes an excerpt of a larger piece does not have the gravitas to stand alone but A Case of You certainly proved otherwise.\u00a0 The choreography performed in silence was sensuality steeped in longing.\u00a0 The silence merely emphasized the deep connection between the two dancers that existed far beyond music.\u00a0 Passion and intimacy characterized their every movement.\u00a0 Transitions between lifts are seamless.\u00a0\u00a0 The audience gasps as the woman runs into a lift wrapping her legs around her man as if stuck to him by Velcro.\u00a0 No preparation, no plie, no help from her man\u2026just unbridled strength and determination to be as close as possible to her man.<\/p>\n

The music seemed to creep onto the stage with the luscious velvety vocals of Diana Krall filling the stage. \u201cOh, you are in my blood like holy wine.\u00a0 You taste so bitter and so sweet.\u00a0 Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling and I would still be on my feet.\u201d\u00a0 These lyrics capture the very essence of the movements in this dance drama.\u00a0 For Joni Mitchell, this song was an attempt to capture her feelings after a tumultuous breakup with fellow artist, Graham Nash from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young).\u00a0 It is described as the \u201ctender sound of someone who\u2019s lost love but still believes in its beauty.\u201d As Samantha Figgins and Isaiah Day danced, they clearly demonstrated a belief and commitment to loving one another.\u00a0 Their long sinewy bodies and expressive hands never stop moving.\u00a0 This was not a breakup but \u00a0a reconciliation, a uniting of two souls deeply in love.\u00a0 When Samantha literally runs to stand on the thighs of Isaiah only to caress, and be caressed, once again she does it without his assistance.\u00a0 She simply stands facing him, determined to be as close as she can be to him.\u00a0 The audience once again audibly gasps.\u00a0 \u00a0The two immediately swirl into a series of movements reaching, contracting around one another, and then away, \u00a0touching, stretching, caressing and finally embracing.<\/p>\n

\"Alvin<\/a><\/p>\n

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Matthew Neenan\u2019s \u201cDifference Between\u201d \u2013 Photo by Paul Kolnik.<\/p>\n

This was a wonderfully curated program exploring the emotional and technical prowess of the company.\u00a0 Each dance seemed to explore a different facet of the company and at intermission you could hear the audience excitedly anticipating the Los Angeles premiere of\u00a0 Difference Between.\u00a0 Choreography by Matthew Neenan<\/a> performed to music written and performed by Heather Christian and the Arbornauts in costumes designed by Karen Young., this piece did not disappoint.\u00a0\u00a0 The costumes use a color pallet that is reminiscent of water and land.\u00a0 No two dancers are dressed alike.\u00a0\u00a0 This contributes to the individuality and uniqueness that is integral to the piece.\u00a0 As choreographer Neenan states, \u201c\u2026because we have different casts, I always ask each of them to bring something new to it so if there\u2019s a solo with someone or they might change it up a little bit and I prefer to see that, so it\u2019s not always the same \u2026\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 There is an abandonment that characterizes the way the seven dancers run, jump and cover the entire stage. \u00a0From the very beginning you get a sense of community.\u00a0 Movement in unison is extremely powerful because this community is moving in perfect togetherness with each swing of the arm and turn of the head or change in focus.\u00a0 The community effortlessly lifts members as they reach away and out into space.\u00a0 It is as if they are flying and the dancers seem to pause in midair when silence unexpectedly arises in the musical accompaniment. \u00a0\u00a0The concepts and ideas throughout the ballet seem to stem from the music and the libretto.\u00a0 \u201cDifference between. Deference, reverence, sever its shoots on the bean.\u00a0 Sanity, brevity, bravery, levity\u2014 these are the virtues are any restored or recorded or\u00a0pored over once the romance of it leaves?\u201d\u00a0-excerpt from the Heather Christian lyrics .\u00a0 The stage is never empty as the dancers come and go with a whimsical pas de chat high in the air or a turn sequence quickly followed by movements that embrace the floor.\u00a0 Multiple duets, two men, two women, trios, solos, never stop coming and going, all done with precision and a huge range of emotions from sheer joy to deep reflection, sadness, longing, loving caresses, a playful touch, head-to-head, \u00a0hand to hand, and heart to heart. Too soon the community moves on and away and the dance ends with the audience loudly applauding and wanting more!<\/p>\n

\"Alvin<\/a><\/p>\n

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Alvin Ailey\u2019s \u201cRevelations\u201d \u2013 Photo by Danica Paulos.<\/p>\n

The curtains open and lights slowly come up to reveal the company in the opening tableau of the beloved, iconic Revelations by Alvin Ailey<\/a>. The audience immediately erupts into applause. I have had the pleasure of seeing this suite more times than I can count with casts that included such dance luminaries as Warren Spears, Judith Jamison, Miguel Godreau, Gary DeLoatch, Sarita Allen, Stephen Smith, Mari Kajiwara, Dudley Williams, Tina Yuan, Shirley Black Brown, Keith McDaniel, Donna Wood, Marilyn Banks, Linda Kent, Kelvin Rotardier, George Faison, Neisha Folkes, Clive Thompson, Nasha Thomas, and Michihiko Oka.\u00a0 This list is just a beginning and by no means meant to be exhaustive.\u00a0 These are the people I first saw perform this moving suite to African American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs, and holy blues choreographed by \u00a0Alvin Ailey.\u00a0 My memories are instantly shoved aside as the soul stirring vocal arrangements, by Howard Roberts, soar carrying the audience straight to church.\u00a0 The music sounds as if the choir is standing on the stage.\u00a0 Revelations is described as a \u201ccultural treasure\u201d loved by audiences all over the world.\u00a0 It tells the story of a people confronting and transcending barriers that seem insurmountable.\u00a0\u00a0 It is Horton technique wrapped around perseverance, pain, sorrow, suffering, trials, tribulations, peace, hope, and a deep rewarding happiness.\u00a0 It has an undeniable appeal to universal emotions that go beyond nationality, language, faith, and racial differences.\u00a0 The pain of a difficult life is captured from the beginning of \u201cI Been Buked\u201d with the dancers\u2019 deep plies reaching to the earth as they hold their sides. As if in pain.\u00a0 They are a community holding on to one another as they pull away and come together in a wedge that reaches out and then up to the heavens.\u00a0 The shapes they make are filled with angles that communicate angst and pain.\u00a0 The pace picks up with the trio in \u201cDidn\u2019t My Lord Deliver Daniel\u201d. \u00a0The dancers embrace the floor and move with an abandon and commitment to praying that is remarkable.\u00a0 \u201cFix Me Jesus\u201d, a slow plaintive, reflective pas de deux that requires control from both dancers to hinge, develop\u00e9, slowly contract to the floor, rise to relev\u00e9, and end with a woman poised in a long arabesque on the thighs of her partner reaching to the heavens.\u00a0 Both \u201cProcessional\/Honor\u201d and \u201cWade in The Water\u201d brought another change of pace and the audience could be heard singing along.\u00a0 Yanvolou, a dance with Haitian origins, never looked so good.\u00a0 The dancers were at a baptismal that ended with the holy ghost taking over one of the women. \u201cI Wanna Be Ready\u201d, a reflective male solo closes the Take Me To The Water section. The last section, \u201cMove, Members, Move\u201d, is a series of fast moving, jubilant, celebratory, dances reminiscent of being in a rural Texas Baptist church.\u00a0 It opens with \u201cSinner Man, \u00a0a tour de force trio of men who jump, turn, tilt, and run as if they are trying to escape Satan.\u00a0 By the end, the audience is loudly cheering.\u00a0 The remainder of this section finds the dancers in church meeting, greeting, gossiping, and having good time.\u00a0 The women in church dresses with full circle skirts, church hats, and fans, effortlessly lift their legs to the ceiling while the men, in crisp white shirts, vests, and black pants grandly step, duckwalk, turn and jump.\u00a0 The movements, done with abundant joy and abandonment captured by the holy spirit reaches beyond the stage to the audience that is clapping, singing along, rocking, swaying, and wildly applauding.<\/p>\n

Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, and so many dancers who have passed on are smiling because the legacy is clearly intact!\u00a0 Bravo Alicia Graf Mack, new Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Matthew Rushing, Associate Artistic Director for a wonderfully curated program that brings a fresh perspective but maintains the vision of Mr. Ailey and Ms. Jamison.\u00a0 Finally, Clifton Brown and Kanji Segawa bare to be applauded as rehearsal directors who have done a phenomenal job keeping the work precise, clean, and pristine yet overflowing with emotion and intention.\u00a0 The company is in good hands !!!!<\/p>\n

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater can be seen at the Zellerbach Hall<\/a>, Berkley, California, April 7-12 and then in Davis, CA at the Mondavi Center, April 14 & 15.\u00a0 They are definitely worth a road trip from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, please visit their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, please visit their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Written by Leah Bass-Baylis for LA Dance Chronicle.<\/p>\n

Featured image: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Matthew Neenan\u2019s \u201cDifference Between\u201d \u2013 Photo by Paul Kolnik.<\/p>\n

Please follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, BlueSky<\/a>, and LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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