Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, “Revelations”/Photo: Tony Powell
It’s become increasingly common for dance companies—which already have fleeting, one-weekend runs—to perform different dances different nights. Be it New York City Ballet’s recent visit to the Harris Theater (its first appearance in Chicago in eighteen years) or Hubbard Street’s now regular Program A/Program B structure at the MCA, those of us who live for this stuff must frequently procure seats to multiple nights or suffer some form of choreographic FoMO.
And so it is with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s fifty-fifth annual stop at the Auditorium Theatre, April 17-21, which features three distinct programs over five days. If you want to catch a premiere by Ailey resident artist Amy Hall Garner and finish things off with Ailey’s mainstay “Revelations,” well, you’re going to need to come two nights. So clear your calendar; here’s the lineup.
Opening and Saturday nights are dedicated to “Audience Favorites,” which include Ronald K. Brown’s ode to Ailey company legend and artistic director emerita Judith Jamison, set to music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis and War. There’s also the return of Kyle Abraham’s “Are You in Your Feelings,” in which Abraham’s technically demanding, seamlessly baroque blend of contemporary and hip-hop technique is on full display to a “mixtape” of soul, hip-hop and R&B. And, as the title indicates, the program concludes with “Revelations”—Ailey’s 1960 suite set to spirituals that has become part of our collective cultural consciousness and the cornerstone of the company’s legacy.
Friday night and Saturday matinee performances are “All-New,” with Midwest premieres of “Century,” Amy Hall Garner’s swinging dedication to her grandfather, made on the occasion of his one-hundredth birthday; and a new romantic duet from Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish entitled “Me, Myself and You.” Earlier works—but new to Chicago—are Alonzo King’s abstract meditation on manmade classical forms in relationship with nature, “Following the Subtle Current Upstream,” and Hans van Manen’s 1997 “Solo” for three men. Of the three programs, this one does not include “Revelations,” uncommon for an Ailey tour. Program C, running Thursday night and Sunday afternoon, is comprised only of dances by the man himself, with works spanning Ailey’s career from 1960 to 1985.
Which to see? Whichever you can make it to. The Ailey company never disappoints.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 East Ida B. Wells, Wednesday-Saturday, April 17-21. Tickets start at $40. Info and tickets at auditoriumtheatre.org.
