Ailey again: speechdance

Had to see the second programme of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre after last week's revelation(s), and it confirmed for me that this is one of the very local wonders of the world, like hearing the Glinka Choir of St Petersburg, Wagner at Bayreuth or the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Another performance of Revelations, another cast, with seemingly effortless balance from Constance Stamatiou and Antonio Douthit for 'Fix Me, Jesus' and a moving-to-tears solo from Amos J Machanic Jr in 'I Wanna Be Ready'. Yes, it's a masterpiece, a 50-year old classic that's anything but ossified. And it converted my companion to the belief that modern dance really could express the depths of the human spirit, as his grand criterion for Great Art has it.

I learned a lot, too. Judith Jamison's Hymn (company pictured above by Andrew Eccles) to her predecessor and founding father, the great man himself, does something that may well be commonplace in the contemporary dance world, but which I've never come across before. They dance, in places, to the spoken word alone, with only a minimum of mime. As someone who's fascinated by the potential of speech melody in Janacek and Steve Reich, I found this balletic equivalent enthralling.


OK. so the score by Robert Ruggieri isn't up to much, and the documentary speeches of company members are a little stagily narrated by 'actress/raconteuse' Anna Deveare Smith (the volume, which could have been reduced by at least 20 per cent, probably made her contributions sound unnaturally harsh at times). But there's certainly melody in her declamation, and when the music stopped and several solo dancers just expressed the text, it was thrilling. I liked most of all Khilea Douglass's solo 'The Mask', about a dancer's reflections on her grandmother in Africa. My Arts Desk colleague Judith Flanders was a little tougher on the overall impact, but she loved the rest.

No solos on YouTube, but here are a couple of minutes of the company in action (go fullscreen for symmetry):



Anointed, choreographed by Christopher L Huggins, struck me as amazingly complex dance to monotonous music (by Moby and Sean Clements), a score which only served as a clean slate to write on. But I did a double take when halfway through a poetic Pas de Deux, the female dancer lifted her male partner and held him in perfect poise. It didn't happen again, but it was a moment of did-I-really-see-that magic.

And my evening was enhanced by meeting South African-born dance enthusiast Pami Preller, who's been to all the performances and still finds something fresh and extraordinary, a panache and an equilibrium which she reckons even the Royal Ballet can't quite match.

Anyway, you have until tomorrow night to catch a phenomenon in action at Sadler's Wells, after which you can see it on tour.

Dancing with Nina and Otis

Simone and Redding - they have to be the greatest in putting across a song with abandon, don't they? To make high art out of choreographing them is the biggest challenge, but I can say with some euphoria, as a virgin to the company, that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater rises to it with unflagging energy. Some time ago I asked our friend and dance lover Liz Holt to tell me what for her was tops. This was her answer, and she proved it by taking me to see the AAADT at Sadler's Wells last night.

My colleague Ismene Brown on The Arts Desk can tell you in more eloquent detail than I why most of it worked (and a little bit didn't, quite). But I want to splurge a bit of enthusiasm, so here goes. Suite Otis (gents pictured above by Steve Vaccariello) bursts on us pretty and vibrant in pink, some 40 years since George W Faison created it. It's not just the exhilarating blend of classical dance with moves and wiggles more associated with the great man's hits that made such an impact; I just loved the individuality of each ensemble dancer's expressions - pride, humour, haughtiness, anger, you name it. Really charming cheek-to-cheekiness from the doe-eyed Ghrai DeVore and stocky, charismatic Guillermo Asca; a final sweep of euphoria to Otis's greatest number that I know of, "Try a Little Tenderness". We have to see him performing that in 1967



and here's a mere minute or so's snippets of Suite Otis. NB: some of these clips are widescreen, so best to click on the moving image and view them on YouTube.



Plotless contemporary dance can be a bit baffling. I felt that about The Hunt, despite the incredible unflagging energy to some over-amplified drumming, and Dancing Spirit, though I found the music by Les Tambours du Bronx compelling. In a charming Q&A afterwards, charismatic artistic director designate and choreographer Robert Battle, an articulate and natural speaker, suggested we just go with it, try and see it again and put our own story to it, which might be more interesting than what he'd thought of in the first place.

Whatever the tale, no-one could fail to respond to the most visceral male dance solo I've ever seen, the phenomenal Samuel Lee Roberts's to Battle's In/Side, a whirling chronicle of pain to Nina Simone's 'Wild is the Wind'. This amazing photograph is by Paul Kolnik.


Again, there's a short composite clip on YouTube:



What I didn't realise until I dug out the Nina album with the song on it is that it was composed by the famous film composer Dimitri Tiomkin, one-time student of Glazunov at the St Petersburg Conservatoire and of Busoni in Berlin. What a link!

And finally, the signature piece, Ailey's own Revelations. Half a century on, the company fill it with feeling, virtuosity and enthusiasm, performing it as if it were a new piece - which, to many in the theatre like myself, it was. Let that never be forgotten by any artists performing what they think is familiar repertoire - to many, it won't be. All of this long spiritual symphony can be seen on YouTube, so I give you just the opening number 'I Been 'Buked'



and the roofraising finale, 'Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham'.



You ought also to see the very beautiful 'Wade in the Water' sequence, too, but there I'll use a couple more classy images. The last three are by Andrew Eccles.



Must have just one more, of the leaping men in 'Sinner Man' (different from the three I saw, who included Samuel Lee Roberts spinning dizzyingly again)


With a wild reprise of 'Rocka my Soul', a standing ovation was never more deservingly won. Good luck to Battle as he takes over from the remarkable Judith Jamison next year. And don't miss the two programmes running at Sadler's Wells until 25 September if you can get a ticket.