Gracious, with a groove, is how you might describe Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: long-limbed elegance in the modern lines of Ailey’s mid-century choreography, laced with African and street vernaculars in a way that honours the company’s heritage (Ailey died in 1989) and is always looking to say something new.
Three years since the company’s last visit to London, they bring a pick and mix approach to programming that’s always accessible and audience friendly. But there’s a small shift of perspective in their opening show (Programme A, ★★★★☆), to mark the company’s 60th anniversary last year – their first two-act work, Lazarus, by choreographer Rennie Harris. It’s an opportunity to dig a little deeper, and it pays off.
Loosely biographical, Lazarus honours Ailey without being particularly descriptive. It’s more an impressionistic sense of the choreographer’s roots and journey: his impoverished childhood in the segregated south with his single mother, the haunting history of slavery. There are glimpses of fear and persecution, of folk dance, field work and religious devotion.
The dancers live through a push-pull of expression and oppression, of soaring spirits and suffering endured. And the looping rhythms, pushing forward, keeping going despite it all. Faith is at the centre, the rituals and community of the church and images of death and rebirth, but Ailey’s own calling, and his awakening, came ultimately through dance.
Harris is a choreographer who comes from hip-hop, and he uses the form’s complex, rhythmic, criss-crossing feet, and swizzling floorwork slowed down into thoughtful moves. It’s Harris’s voice, but shot through with echoes of Ailey and it’s fascinating to see the piece side-by-side with Ailey’s own Revelations from 1960, reminding you how pioneering Ailey was, how brave back then to be, as the Michael Kiwanuka song on the soundtrack has it, a Black Man in a White World.
The classic Revelations is performed at every AAADT show. Set to spirituals, recalling black life in the American south, it’s a work of sun-soaked atmosphere and great clarity of voice, with reaching lines and swooping full circles, deep pliés rooted to the ground and upturned faces, the spirit always rising. It changes every time you see it, with a different energy each night, but what’s always present is a sense of dignity in the dancers’ proud, straight spines.
Some of these artists have performed Revelations hundreds of times. Clifton Brown, for example, who first joined the company 20 years ago, dances the incredibly demanding and exposed solo I Wanna Be Ready (imagine the pilates class of your nightmares). His body is now less lithe than the frame of his younger self, but his focus, commitment and presence are transfixing.
Revelations returns in Programme B (★★★☆☆), which is overall a thinner offering. Jessica Lang’s EN has a lovely set, with a small suspended moon, a large eclipsed sun and some orbiting and rotating from the white-clad dancers. It’s celestial but not heavenly. Artistic director Robert Battle’s Juba is a strange beast, based on John Mackey’s rocked-up, Rite of Spring-inspired score. Russian folk steps turn into something like malfunctioning dancing dolls but it’s difficult to get past the pleasant blouses and velvet bell bottoms. Best is Ronald K Brown’s The Call, which takes a gentle stroll through Bach, jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams and west African beats – in tribute to some of Ailey’s influences. It’s dance that’s warm and welcoming, as Ailey’s performers always are.
At Sadler’s Wells, London. Programme A runs until 14 September; Programme B runs until 13 September; Programme C runs 10-14 September.
