Ailey company dancers surpass their material
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater always seems to me like the comfort food of modern dance. That doesn’t mean the dancers are bland; quite the opposite. These are performers whose unrivaled technique and vivid temperaments dominate any stage they inhabit, including Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, where the company opened its annual run Tuesday, March 14. It’s the 50th time around for an Ailey residency.
Unfortunately, these performers are so terrific that they sometimes blind audiences to the inequities of the material. In his six years on the job, Artistic Director Robert Battle has attempted to widen the Ailey company’s choreographic range. Tuesday’s concert, the first of three bills under the Cal Performances aegis, was less than a total success.
Mauro Bigonzetti, now the artistic director of La Scala Ballet, made “Deep” last year, using a vocal score in English and Yoruban by the sisters who call themselves Ibeyi. “Deep” is not synonymous with profound. The dance calls for 16 dancers, three of whom start things off with high extensions, leg stretches, semaphoring arms and body shimmies for some rough encounters before the men come on for some dramatic lifts.
Bigonzetti’s style is slick, but its ethnic roots seem suspicious, and all those clustered dancers go on for more than 30 minutes. In this impressive cast, one made special note of Jamar Roberts, Glenn Allen Sims and the fiery Jacquelin Harris.
Much older than “Deep” is Johan Inger’s “Walking Mad,” made for Nederlands Dans Theater in 2001 and performed around that time in San Francisco. The Swedish choreographer is a master of moods. Dominating everything is a long wall with doors that open and close and panels that split apart and topple. What we get, apart from a recording of Ravel’s “Bolero,” is a choreographed cartoon, with dancers chasing each other’s tails and wearing red dunce caps.
This is superior physical comedy, but I can’t help feeling that Inger intended the work for younger dancers. The finale, set to Arvo Pärt, seemed a meditation, as danced by Danica Paulos and Renaldo Maurice.
Battle’s sole contribution to the dancing was the four-minute “Ella” (2016). Accompanied by one of Ella Fitzgerald’s great scat records, Harris and Megan Jakel were all loose arms and insouciant attack. To conclude, Ailey’s 1960 “Revelations” got a performance worthy of its classic status.
The company evoked the Texas revivalist circles of the choreographer’s youth. Roberts and Linda Celeste Sims were exquisitely tender in “Fix Me, Jesus.” Glenn Allen Sims danced an inspired “I Wanna Be Ready.” Michael Jackson Jr., Yannick Lebrun and Daniel Harder confronted “Sinner Man.” No dance masterpiece is more beloved than “Revelations.”