Alvin Ailey Dance Theater appears in LA this month



Photos courtesy of Davidson & Choy Publicity

The ingredients for a first class dance performance seems to be a woman in a fedora and a man’s suit with the jacket cut in half vertically across the chest, one wooden chair, and an expansive empty stage. She leaps, she twirls, her extremities are extended beyond all reason, and the performance is breathless and breathtaking.image

This piece called “The Evolution of a Secured Feminine” is just one of the dance numbers performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The dance troupe will perform at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through April 17. Other performances included in this production are The Hunt, Anointed, Three Black Kings, Cry and the luminous Revelations.
In its LA engagement the company will mark a half century of the troupe’s signature number called Revelations. At a recent performance, the audience gave Revelations three curtain calls. Revelations set to beautiful spiritual music has to be seen to be believed. It has the elements of old time spiritual revival meeting and quality dance performance.
Ailey, who died in 1989, appears via a short film during the performance. The film includes historic performance footage and rare interviews with Alvin Ailey and Artistic Director Judith Jamison.

This is the final season for Jamison to serve as artistic director for the troupe.

“We are thrilled to share this exciting time in Ailey’s history,” Jamison said in a release. “We’re on a journey that began 52 years ago because of Alvin Ailey’s groundbreaking vision. His Revelations is a profound manifestation of how dance can celebrate the human spirt and impact our hearts and minds. During this memorable season, as we welcome Artistic Director Designate Robert Battle, join my incredible dancers who are shinning their light brightly as we begin another five decades of inspiring performances.”

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been recognized by U.S. Congressional resolution as a vital American “Cultural Ambassador to the World,” according to the release. It grew from a now-fabled 1958 New York performance that changed American dance. The company has performed for an estimated 23 million people in 71 countries on six continents. The troupe celebrates the African-American cultural experience and the American modern dance tradition.