Review: ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER'S new works at the Warner Theatre

 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s DC performances at the Warner Theatre include several new works, including The Holy Blues and Blink of an Eye which were on display Thursday Night. 

 The Holy Blues, a collaboration by Urban Bush Women-founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, current Ailey Dancer Samantha Figgins and former Ailey Dancer Chalvar Monteiro, is a beautiful and compelling addition to the repertory. Set to blues tracks by Howlin’ Wolf, Blind Willie Johnson, Rev. James Cleveland and more , the work explores the use of blues and the color blue in the black American experience. Choreographically the vocabulary draws on social and popular dances; dancing together as a means of finding community and solace. The set features a blue door - the door of no return - that was a literal passageway and a foreboding symbol of the cruel violence of slavery. 

 The movement is highly individual with few unison sections. Multiple times a dancer seems to softly tremble and then shake, sometimes with fear and others as if moved by a spirit. It’s a kinetic explosion onstage when the dancers finally erupt in unison, flailing limbs in a collective exhalation. 

The outstanding costumes by Jon Taylor should also be noted, especially in the first half. All made from blue jeans and denim, the unique cuts accentuated the dancers’ bodies and were a subtle reference to the history of denim as workwear for enslaved blacks and the uniform of black resistance in the 1960s. 

The dance builds on the company’s tradition of dancing to blues music and creating work that honors the African American experience. If this work is a classic Ailey addition to the repertory, Blink of an Eye is a perfect repertory addition. 

Choreographed by Medhi Walerski, Artistic Director of Ballet BC, Blink of an Eye, and set to Bach violin partidas, this tour de force contemporary ballet showcases the unparalleled musicality and lyricism of the Ailey dancers. 

Perhaps inspired by the music, the piece draws more from Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco than anything in the Ailey repertory, the dancers giving life to the violins and their insistent, propulsive demands. The dancers seemed to revel in the complexities of the work, deftly shifting from legato turns to almost hanging in the air in suspensions. They found joy in the movement itself, for itself.

This neoclassical approach - simple costumes, laser focus on the music - is more common in ballet companies than at Ailey, and I hope more works with this flavor will be shown. While the dancers are so talented they can make almost anything compelling and everything look beautiful, they deserve a rich array of works to stretch their own technique and artistry. 

The program also included former dancer Jamar Roberts’ Song of the Anchorite, a meditative solo, and Mr. Ailey’s classic Revelations. Casting for Revelations (and this is the reason to see both it and the company annually) included multiple dancers in new-to-me roles. This time it was Sinner Man that stood out, with Shawn Cusseaux, Sebastian Garcia, Mason Evans bringing polish and intensity to the trio. They almost make the piece look too easy, and I would encourage a little more attack, even at the risk of being just slightly late on the music. That said, they performed as a more unified trio than any I’ve ever seen do the work. 

Runtime: Two hours, with two intermissions

Photo Credits: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Dandara Veiga and Donnie Duncan Jr. in Medhi Walerski's Blink of an Eye. Photo by Paul Kolnik. AAADT in The Holy Blues by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Samantha Figgins and Chalvar Monteiro Photo by Steven Pisano