Living the dream: how Ailey went from revelation to institution

Dance Magazine, Dec, 2004 by Joseph Carman

When asked where the Alvin Ailey American Dunce Theater is heading in the 21st century, Judith Jamison lets out a roar of a belly laugh. Then she pauses. "To all those nooks and crannies we haven't been to yet," she answers with a glint of wisdom in her eye, recognizable in anyone with a keen sense of direction. * The success of the Ailey company, both artistically and commercially, reads like on improbable story, given Alvin Ailey's premature death 15 years ago, preceded by a period when the company spun its wheels in a creek of red ink. But when Jamison accepted the post of artistic director in 1989, she not only concocted ways to continue Ailey's vision, but also enlarged upon it, making it relevant to an ever changing dance scene.

"Look at this--46 years of our history," says Jamison, motioning with a wide, circular port de bras around the cramped little library/office on West 61st Street that will soon be superceded by a glamorously spacious building, full of sunlit studios and conference rooms, on West 55th Street (see "At Home in the World," page 42). She speaks as if Ailey himself remains by her side: "Alvin's vision of making available a platform for his peers, for new choreography, for traditional repertoire, for everybody who's talented to come in, be seen, titillate, inspire, and go farther--I think that's brilliant."

During her tenure, Jamison has championed a number of African American choreographers of different generations--Donald Byrd, Ronald K. Brown, Dwight Rhoden, and Alonzo King, for example--who demand from the company's 25 dancers a daunting breadth of stylistic and technical challenges. "I don't want my dancers to feel unchallenged, to feel unappreciated, to be bored. If they're bored, I'm bored," says Jamison. She has comissioned or revived stage-worthy works by choreographers like Lar Lubovitch, Ulysses Dove, Elisa Monte, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, as well as stoked the flame of Ailey's classics. ("I can't live without my dyed-in-the-wool Revelations," she says.)

Still, some have criticized the company, saying that the repertoire's impressive range and virtuosity stresses breadth over depth, and that the stunning Ailey dancers sometimes resemble heavyweights in lightweight venues. What remains incontestable is that the Ailey company offers audiences genuine satisfaction in the dedication of its dancers to the material at hand. In works like Ron Brown's Grace, Jamison's Hymn, Donald McKayle's Rainbow Round My Shoulder, and especially Ailey's Revelations, no one has grounds for complaint. And the Ailey company consistently reinforces its status through international touring, making it one of the most vital cultural ambassadors in American history.

While older Ailey fans may miss the primal, rough-around-the-edges look of the company of the 1970s and '80s, evolution has honed the ensemble to its current Olympian peak. Jamison's experience as a star with formidable charisma and technique spurred her to seek out a battalion of superdancers, armed with pyrotechnical capability, ballet line, and inexhaustible stamina. (Guest choreographer David Parsons calls them "fantabulous.")

"I look for exclusive training, musicality, and poeticism," says Jamison. "If they need to he creatures, they can be. I'm looking for that chameleon-like quality to go from ballet to ballet and tell me something different about what it's like to be a human being, to keep me in awe--so that no matter how many times I see you, I'm inspired." Lowering her voice an octave, she adds, "Some of this stuff can't be taught."

Every spring, Jamison and her invaluable associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya hold a powwow to choose new commissions and revivals for the upcoming season. The 19 ballets featured in the 2004-05 repertoire include the company premiere of Donald Byrd's Burlesque, set in the early 20th century to Louis Armstrong's music, and a revival of Ailey's stark Hidden Rites from 1973. Chaya also suggested that Parsons create a new ballet, his first for Ailey.

With music by Earth, Wind & Fire, Parsons' Shining Star stresses the euphoria at the core of the songs. "It's a difficult time now for people, and I wanted to do something that was optimistic," says Parsons. "We are besieged with fear. Earth, Wind & Fire has an optimism that can't he beat." Beyond the good feelings, however, the ballet's central pas de deux (see cover photo) pushes physical boundaries to exude a candid intimacy, rare even for Ailey dancers. (All Ailey board member gave the ballet to his wife as a birthday gift--a far more imaginative choice than Victoria's Secret lingerie.)

Glenn A Sims, who performs the sexy duet with his wife, Linda Celeste Sims, says, "Without our life experience, it wouldn't come across that we have this quiet sensuality." Reiterating that sentiment, Ms. Sims says, "We don't have to force love into the duet. The music has that sort of flirtatious play that is natural for the two of us." Partnered seamlessly, the choreography intertwines with lifts, like the one where Sims cradles his wife under her neck and her bent knees, then slowly presses her overhead. In another, he caresses her body, arched like a bow, then he raises her chest to his cheek, pumping her body gradually up and down, simulating a heartbeat; the eight dancers in the ensemble then echo the phrase.