Moving in both new and familiar ways, but always with its own distinctive elan and communicative energy - the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre is back for their annual five-week City Center season.
A woman in white is roaming, searching. Slowly her movements fill each of the long, unusual, quiet chords of "The Unanswered Question," by Charles Ives. Now she advances through space; now, staying on the spot, stretching her upper body, she arches her neck up to face the sky.
Choreographer Paul Taylor, whose fabulous "Arden Court" entered the repertoire of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on opening night, Wednesday, is a national treasure. Notes in the New York City Center program claim he is the last survivor of the "pantheon" who invented modern dance.
Nov. 30: The opening night gala of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater included a performance at New York City Center. A candlelight dinner at the Hilton New York in all white, AstroTurf floor covering included, followed.
When Alicia Graf Mack left Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2008, it seemed that her dancing career was finished - among other things, she suffers from an autoimmune disorder classified as reactive arthritis, which, at the time, led to swelling and pain in her joints.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's second program in the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Theatre featured classics from the company's repertoire. The program began with "Streams," a work choreographed in 1970 by Ailey and restaged by associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya.
Both City Center and its chief tenant, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, show new faces this season. Many New Yorkers live in tiny spaces, giving us a special appreciation for the grand lobbies and vaulted ceilings of the city's great theaters.
In these glitzy numbers, you most certainly can. We asked the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company to take the most head-turning looks of the season out for a spin - and twist, dip and twirl.
Yannick Lebrun's story, of a twenty-four year old native of French Guiana turned world-traveling Alvin Ailey dancer, is rooted in humble beginnings. His leap from studying dance at the Adaclam School in Cayenne (capital city of French Guiana) to carving out a place for himself in the award-winning Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is not a path frequently travelled.
Given that she is 77 years old and has been on the board of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for 17 years, 11 as chairwoman, Joan H. Weill clearly does not need to serve any longer. She could simply be enjoying time with her husband, Sanford I. Weill, who recently retired as the head of Citigroup.