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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 24 deceMber 2018

Ailey troupe marks 60 years by looking back at its founder

By JOCELYN NOVECK
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — It was
March 1958 when an Af-
rican-American dancer
named Alvin Ailey, then
making his living on the
Broadway stage, gathered
up a group of fellow danc-
ers and presented a one-
night show of his own works.
In the audience at the 92nd
Street Y in Manhattan was
18-year Sylvia Waters, who
was studying dance across
town at Juilliard. She had
never seen anything like it.
“It was absolutely riveting,”
she says now. “I had never
seen men dance like that.”
Most exciting to Waters
was seeing people dance
“who I could relate to,” she
says. “There was something
so visceral about the expe- This image released by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater shows a performance from the second act of “Lazarus,”
rience. We didn’t know at choreographed by Rennie Harris, in New York.
the time that it was history, Associated Press
but it was definitely spe- able that we still exist to- memories from growing up is to bring younger people describes a trip to Russia
cial.” day, lo these 60 years. And in the South, and African- into the fold. “Our biggest where he felt very far from
It was indeed history: The I think Mr. Ailey would be American heritage and his- challenge is the compe- home — until he saw the
company born that night, absolutely beside-himself tory.” tition for people’s leisure audience cheering “Rev-
which Waters would join happy, that something he Ailey grew up in poverty time,” Battle says. “The elations.” Suddenly, he
a decade later, is now 60 started 60 years ago could in small-town Texas, to a phones, the technology.” says, “it became a church
years old and credited with blossom into everything he 17-year-old mother. It’s The cost of touring, too, is somewhere in the South.”
helping popularize modern imagined.” both the story of his early rising. “We have to con- The popularity of “Revela-
dance, as well as bringing In a recent interview on the life and the broader Afri- tinue to find ways to reach tions” is hardly a challenge,
the African-American ex- sidelines of company re- can-American experience new audiences,” he says. Battle says — he sees it as
perience to a global stage. hearsal, Jamison recalled that the company is telling However successful the a blessing. “It’s like Aretha
The Alvin Ailey American being present as Ailey died, with the two-act “Lazarus,” new piece, or others in the singing, ‘Respect,’” he
Dance Theater is one of the along with Waters and Ai- so named for the theme of company’s broad reper- notes. “People don’t get
best known companies in ley’s mother. “We were in resurrection. It was choreo- toire, nothing will ever take tired of it. It’s, ‘C’mon, sing
the world, touring constant- his room as he passed, and graphed by hip-hop artist the place of “Revelations,” it!’” Jamison adds that on
ly and still earning rapturous usually you see in movies, Rennie Harris and commis- which more than a signa- evenings when “Revela-
ovations for its signature that people have their last sioned by Robert Battle, ture work is the very core of tions” isn’t on the bill, audi-
work, “Revelations,” which breath and they breathe Jamison’s successor as ar- the company’s identity. It’s ences still appreciate see-
tells the African-American out. But Mr. Ailey breathed tistic director. on the schedule most eve- ing the new works — and
story through spirituals and IN. We expected him to “There came this thing of nings the company per- then, she quips, “they’ll buy
blues. breathe out, and he didn’t. wanting to hear Mr. Ailey’s forms. another ticket, to get their
To mark the milestone, the So I think what we’re living voice, because so many of Indeed, the work is so much fix.” Nor do the dancers, for
company has been de- on now, is his breath OUT us didn’t have the opportu- in demand that none other whom “Revelations” is a rite
voting its current New York ... that air, that vision, that nity to know him,” says Bat- than Ailey himself tried to of passage, seem to tire of
season to remembering dream.” tle. He means “voice” both cut back on it years ago, to the work, Lebrun says.
Ailey himself, who died at A key challenge for the figuratively and literally; showcase other things. But “There’s always something
age 58 in 1989, with a ma- company is keeping Ailey’s there’s a section of “Laza- ticket sales dropped, Battle new to say,” says Lebrun,
jor new work, “Lazarus,” as memory alive and present rus” where the choreogra- says, “And so Alvin said, whose favorite sections
well as “Timeless Ailey,” a — not just for audiences, pher inserts his own voice ‘Put it back on!’” Performed to perform are “I Wanna
compilation that includes a but for the dancers who into old audio of Ailey, as if everywhere from the Olym- Be Ready,” a solo for a
piece of “Blues Suite,” per- never met him. Yannick interviewing him today. pics to the White House, man preparing to meet his
formed that night in 1958. Lebrun, who grew up in The piece begins with a his- the work has often been maker, and “Sinner Man,”
It’s a time for the company French Guiana and joined torical look at the African- called the most-seen piece where he enters the stage
to reflect on how it made it the company 10 years ago, American struggle, includ- of modern dance, but it’s in an adrenaline-fueled
this far, says Judith Jamison, says he learned about Ailey ing a depiction of lynch- hard to imagine anything sprint.
the former Ailey artistic from people like Jamison. ings, and then moves into to compare it with. “’Revelations’ is why we
director and still its best- “She always talked about full-on, high-energy hip- “It’s a phenomenon,” Bat- are here right now, 60 years
known face. Alvin and how generous he hop. “Hip-hop is a celebra- tle says simply, “a once- later,” Lebrun says. “So if
“It’s amazing,” says was, how human he was,” tion of life,” Battle says. in-a-lifetime work. It’s uni- we don’t take care of it ...
Jamison, 75, who in her says Lebrun, one of the The genre also connects versal in such a palpable this most important modern
dancing years became company’s current stars, with younger audiences, way that no matter if we’re dance piece in the world,
known for the searing “and how dedicated he of course, and the compa- across the street or across then why are we here?
“Cry,” another Ailey signa- was to sharing his love for ny’s challenge — like that the ocean, people have Why are we doing what
ture piece. “I find it remark- modern dance, but also his of any arts organization — a visceral response.” He we’re doing?”q