Matthew Rushing feels the spirit in new Ronald K. Brown commission (Photo by Paul Kolnick)
New York City Center
130 West 56th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Through January 3
Tickets: $25-$175
212-581-1212
www.alvinailey.org
www.nycitycenter.org
On December 22, Alvin Ailey presented a trio of world premieres, beginning with Ronald K. Brown’s tribute to artistic director Judith Jamison, titled “Dancing Spirit,” as is her autobiography. The troupe, costumed simply in variations of blue and white, move to instrumental music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead, and War, often with each dancer performing slightly different routines; what could have been chaotic, though, is, in the hands of Brown – who runs the Brooklyn-based Evidence, A Dance Company – simply gorgeous, particularly when Matthew Rushing serves as the slow-motion leader of four of the men. Incorporating Afro-Cuban and Brazilian styles, Brown pulls off another coup; as charged as the piece is, no two dancers ever touch one another, not even during Rushing’s pas de deux with Renee Robinson or when all the dancers are onstage together. (“Dancing Spirit” is also scheduled for December 27, 29, and 30 and January 3.)
Linda Celeste Sims gets artistic in new Judith Jamison piece (Photo by Paul Kolnick)
For her twentieth anniversary, Jamison has choreographed “Among Us (Private Spaces: Public Places),” which she sets in an art museum that features paintings by Jamison herself. Clifton Brown serves as a Puck-like genie, encouraging visitors in everyday clothing (business suits, dresses, jeans) to suddenly start feeling the beat of ELEW’s (Eric Robert Lewis) original jazzy score. Hope Boykin and Kirven James Boyd hold a fun dance-off against Rosalyn Deshauteurs and Vernard J. Gilmore, the amazing Linda Celeste Sims (in a stunning pink dress) teams up in a beautiful duet with (real-life husband) Glen Allen Sims, and three construction workers (Brown, Rushing, and Gilmore) cause a little havoc on their lunch break. Although the piece can be maddeningly inconsistent, especially in its narrative, it also has some wonderful movement. (“Among Us”: December 29, January 1 and 3.)
The third world premiere comes from longtime Ailey dancer Rushing, an extraordinary performer whose “Uptown” is, unfortunately, rather ordinary at best and mostly unnecessary. Telling the story of the Harlem Renaissance in a series of set pieces introduced by Abdur-Rahim Jackson, the multimedia “Uptown” is clichéd, cramped, and obvious, playing out more like a student presentation than a professional work. However, several exciting moments include Glen Allen Sims’s dance to the words of W. E. B. DuBois and Anthony Burrell’s Langston Hughes. Most else is mundane, a pale echo of such Ailey classics as “Night Creature” and “Revelations.” (“Uptown”: December 26, 27, 29, 30, January 1.)
