Tradition and innovation will be simultaneously celebrated by the acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company at Sadler’s Wells this September, with two contrasting mixed bills – Legacy and New Works – staged in alternating performances over one week.
The company, which was founded nearly seven decades ago by pioneering American dancer, choreographer and activist Alvin Ailey Jr, returns to London for its first international tour under the leadership of new Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack.
“This was an evening of superlatives, proving once again both the power of dance and its heritage in the American psyche as best exemplified by probably its best exponent, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater”.
Review by Stephen Gilchrist.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the biggest, possibly the largest modern dance company in the United States. It is certainly the most significant. It is iconic and is recognized as a vital American cultural ambassador by the United States Congress. Ailey himself started the company in 1958 And on reviewing last night’s programmes denominated “New Works” it remains, almost 70 years later, the standard by which all other American contemporary dance troupes should be judged.
Ailey’s American Dance Theater is performing in London as part of its international tour at Sadler’s Wells for the first time under its new artistic director Alicia Graf Mack who took over the reins from the late Judith Jamison in 2025. Generationally, the strength of twentieth century American dance lies in the diversity of disciplines enjoyed by both dancers and choreographers who do not consider it beneath them to choreograph or dance in another luminous American cultural art form, namely musical theatre. Indeed, two of the choreographers in this programme have made significant contributions in musical theatre. I had the pleasure of seeing Judith Jamieson herself In 1980 when she left Ailey’s his company to perform in a Broadway musical, Duke Ellington’s ‘Sophisticated Ladies’. She admitted it was a completely different performance atmosphere which required various new skills. Another choreographer in this programme, Lar Lubavitch, choreographed the original Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine show “Into the Woods”, which I also had the privilege of seeing in 1987.
The diversity of this particular programme was eclectic and showed off the performance style of the eighteen members of the company to best advantage. The programme consisted of five pieces. The first, ‘Blink of an Eye’ (choregraphed by Mehdi Walerski) is danced to music for solo violin by JS Bach It is an abstract ensemble piece in which seven dancers couple and decouple, often gymnastically in some fast and furious moves. Are they fighting or competing? It is an expressionist mood piece danced with superb discipline and energy by this talented company.
‘Song of the Anchorite’ followed on, a piece danced powerfully by Yannick Lebrun, a solo figure in, and against, what appeared to be a desolate landscape (by Joseph Anthony Gaito) to choreography by Jamar Roberts and trumpeter Avishai Cohen’s interpretation of a Ravel adagio. Is the protagonist searching, and if so for what?
‘Many Angels’ danced beautifully, ethereally dressed and set by Samantha Figgins, James Gilmer, Miranda Quinn, Xavier Mack and Jesse Obremski was truly angelic, and balletic to Lar Lubavitch’s staging and music by Mahler. It was truly a work of beauty. There were no hard edges to the choreography, just a serene, even heavenly, scena of arabesque, attitude and À terre.
‘A Case for You’ followed, a smoky, louche and muscular pas de deux choreographed by Jamieson which could have come straight out ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. It was danced to a sultry Diana Krall track of the eponymous Joni Mitchell song with almost visible sexual heat emanating from Caroline T. Dartey, Christopher Taylor as they curled, lunged at and entwined each other, with at least one extraordinary jump from Dartey to entangle Taylor’s body off the ground There was a visible gasp from the house!
The finale was Ailey’s own iconic masterpiece, ‘Revelations’, first choregraphed and staged in 1960, only two years after the formation of the company It is a series of dance episodes set to a portmanteau of African American spirituals, song-sermons, and gospel. It represents the entirety of the African American Experience from its roots in holy blues to Caribbean rhythms to the deep south and including a superb setting of ‘Wade in the Water’ with flowing fabrics in shades of blue, green, and white across the wide-open space of the Sadlers Wells stage. There was a terrific ‘Sinner Man’ sequence danced by Sebastian Garcia, Isaiah Day and Patrick Coker against a hell fire lighting design and at the conclusion a joyous ‘Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham’ by the entire company which, needless to say brought the house down.
This was an evening of superlatives, proving once again both the power of dance and its heritage in the American psyche as best exemplified by probably its best exponent, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Photo credit: Paul Kolnik
Blink of an Eye
Caroline T. Dartey, Ashley Kaylynn Green, Hannah Alissa Richardson, Dandara Veiga, Isaiah Day, Mason Evans, James Gilmer, Jesse Obremski
Song of the Anchorite
Yannick Lebrun
Many Angels
Samantha Figgins, James Gilmer, Miranda Quinn, Xavier Mack, Jesse Obremski
A Case of You
Caroline T. Dartey, Christopher Taylor
Revelations
PILGRIM OF SORROW
I Been ‘Buked
The Company
Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel
Christopher Taylor, Jessica Amber Pinkett, Caroline T. Dartey
Fix Me, Jesus
Sarah Daley-Perdomo, Yannick Lebrun
TAKE ME TO THE WATER
Processional/Honor, Honor
Mason Evans, Miranda Quinn, Leonardo Brito, Isaiah Day
Wade in the Water
Jacquelin Harris, Renaldo Maurice, Constance Stamatiou
I Wanna Be Ready
Xavier Mack
MOVE, MEMBERS, MOVE
Sinner Man
Sebastian Garcia, Isaiah Day, Patrick Coker
The Day is Past and Gone
The Company
You May Run On
The Company
Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham
The Company