Rennie Harris’s specially commissioned “Home” examines the AIDS crisis in a positive way (photo by Paul Kolnik)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York City Center
130 West 56th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Through January 1, $25-$150
212-581-1212
www.alvinailey.org
www.nycitycenter.org

In our exclusive twi-ny talk with Robert Battle last month, the new Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater artistic director discussed his plans for the future of the famed company, explaining, “If it’s one choreographer’s work, it’s harder to do that, but when you’re choosing works from many different choreographers in one season you get the sense of that yin and yang, that stretching forward of busting the whole thing wide open but yet keeping the traditional so that the company stays rooted.” Battle certainly busted things wide open on December 13, when he introduced an all-new program of works that provided a telling example of where he is heading. The evening began with a new production of Ailey’s 1970 piece, “Streams,” an elegant, balletic dance restaged by associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya with affection for Ailey’s original and Miloslav Kabelac’s percussion-and-xylophone-heavy score but lacking deep emotion. That was followed by Battle’s own short but wonderfully entertaining 1999 work, “Takademe,” in which Kirven James Boyd, wearing a ruffled red Missoni outfit, danced wildly to Naren Budhakar’s live vocal performance in what became a fun, scatlike speaking-in-tongues verbal and physical showdown. Thus, Battle kicked things off with the traditional, then announced his arrival, leading to the second half of the evening, the explosive pairing of Rennie Harris’s newly commissioned “Home” and the Ailey premiere of Ohad Naharin’s revelatory “Minus 16,” from 1999. In the former, fourteen dancers, including rehearsal director Matthew Rushing, all wearing street clothes, gathered together in a group before letting loose, moving to music by Dennis Ferrer and Raphael Xavier in a work inspired by actual responses to the “Fight HIV Your Way” initiative. A fanciful tribute to Ailey himself, who died of AIDS in 1989, “Home” is hopeful and uplifting, an excellent lead-in to the grand finale, one of the most cutting-edge works ever performed by AAADT.

Ohad Naharin’s “Minus 16” is a highlight of Alvin Ailey’s New York season at City Center (photo by Paul Kolnik)

With intermission not quite over, a solitary man stands near the front of the stage, dressed in Hasidic clothing, slowly beginning to move as the audience makes its way back inside the theater. It’s impossible not to initially think of the racial tensions that have long existed between African Americans and the Hasidic community in New York City, primarily in Crown Heights, but as he is joined by more dancers and the music turns from the John Buzon Trio’s “It Must Be True” to the traditional standard “Hava Nagila,” those thoughts disappear as Naharin’s unique Gaga movement language takes over. The central part of the piece is an exhilarating section in which eighteen dancers (the number eighteen represents the word “life” in Hebrew) are seated in a semicircle, performing on, under, on top of, or next to their chairs as they follow one another around one by one in order as verses are added on to the Passover children’s song “Echad Mi Yode’a.” It’s as if City Center has suddenly become home to a breathtaking, rather unique bar mitzvah celebration, a riotous party that soon involves inviting audience members, including yours truly, onto the stage to join in duets with members of the Ailey crew. (We have to thank the marvelous Belen Estrada for not making us look like a complete idiot up there.) Things eventually slow down but pick up yet again in Naharin’s sparkling piece, which also uses music by Vivaldi and the Beach Boys in addition to “Over the Rainbow” and “Hooray for Hollywood.” A virtuoso work that signals a major step for AAADT, “Minus 16” is dedicated to Naharin’s late wife, Mari Kajiwara, who was an Ailey dancer from 1970 to 1984 and Alvin Ailey’s rehearsal assistant. Battle made a major statement with this all-new program, one that promises a bright and exciting future under his leadership. (“Streams,” “Home,” and “Minus 16” will all be performed on December 21 at 8:00, along with Joyce Trisler’s “Journey.” “Home” is also scheduled for December 23, 28, 30, and 31, with “Minus 16” scheduled for December 25, 28, and 31, at varying times.)