Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater arrives at Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center - review

There is no denying that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is probably the world’s most popular modern dance company, with more than 25 million people around the globe who have seen his dance productions. Yet, despite its huge repertoire and extensive performance schedule, there is only one outstanding, true canonic creation: “Revelations,” set to Gospel songs and choreographed by Ailey in 1960, in the early years of his career. Years later, that work protected the company’s relevancy.

Fortunately, after all these years “Revelations” remains fresh. Every performance by the company ends with this brilliant choreography, which sums up the distilled, captivating spirit of the rural, church-going southern American states, and the urban energy-filled, sassy urban moving body.

While the company’s current tour in Israel offered two very different programs, I refer to the first program, which included four of Ailey’s creations from the 1970s. The second option offered three works by various choreographers (and of course, inevitably ended with Ailey’s “Revelations.”)

The evening’s particular choices were not well-balanced stylistically. The compositions were rather simplistic and so were the movements’ lexicon. The music was an amalgam of traditional gospel-Christian-religious music, Afro-American spirituals, blues, jazz – mainly by Duke Ellington – mixed with a variety of dance disciplines from Martha Graham, Garth Fagan, Jose Limon, and more, all the way to balletic influences, which in this case seemed mostly pretentious, since most of the dancers’ technique wasn’t as polished as needed.

Dance was high-spirited and dynamic

This high-spirited, dynamic company has fine-working communication tools. Often, the technique by itself is not the main goal on stage, as in some entertaining acts. The human essence is what captures the audience’s attention, particularly in richly expressive theater-dance genres.

It was good to see “Cry,” again – a fine example of one of Ailey’s most appreciated solo works, created in 1971. It is a soulful dance filled with layers of pain and sorrow and was beautifully danced by Constance Stamatiou.

Frankly, at the end of a rather long evening, “Revelations” turned out to be reviving, and a strong incentive to dance in our seats.