'A cultural treasure': Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater graces Austin with 'Revelations'
Michael Barnes
A long dry spell for local dance has lifted.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is headed back to Austin after an unconscionable 15-year absence. The company will bring "Revelations," one of the most beloved stage dances in American history, as well as other movement pieces, old and new, to the University of Texas Bass Concert Hall next weekend.
Late founder Alvin Ailey, who grew up 75 miles away from the Bass Concert Hall stage in the rural town of Rogers, left behind more than dances.
He forged communities. In Austin, for instance, organized groups of devotees, many of them African American, will attend the performances in flocks, as they do from coast to coast.
"Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is iconic among African Americans," said Lisa B. Thompson, esteemed playwright and UT professor, "not just dance enthusiasts, but Black people from all walks of life and across generations. To me, the company is a cultural treasure."
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An Ailey dance connection at Huston-Tillotson
Among those looking forward to the Austin visit by the troupe is Melva K. Wallace, the still-new president of Huston-Tillotson University.
As a dancer from Grambling State University, she trained with Ailey staff during summer intensive workshops in New York City as part of the Black College Dance Exchange. Her recently retired Grambling instructor, Diane Moroney-Grigsby, was a former Ailey dancer who toured in Europe, Asia and Africa.
"I never danced with them or toured with them," Wallace said. "That would have been a dream. But I did participate in summer intensives."
Classically trained, Wallace studied the modern dance techniques developed by Ailey's mentor, Lester Horton, and others, that were incorporated into "Revelations."
"To me, it's unique," Wallace said. "Ailey was in his 20s when he created it, and to see beautifully trained dancers performing it to choral spirituals and gospel music is phenomenal."
Alvin Ailey's 'Revelations' is the dance of dances
Why so much attention devoted to "Revelations"?
A modern dance miracle, it will be performed by the troupe, along with other selections, on both Austin dates. The first show, on Saturday night, will feature some newer pieces, while the second, on next Sunday afternoon, will include shorter Ailey classics.
As performing arts bookers say: "You can't leave 'Revelations' off the program. People come to see it."
First performed in 1960 — just two years after Ailey founded the company in New York City to highlight Black culture — and originally more than an hour in length, the dance draws on several streams of Black history and culture: slavery, redemption, spirituals, baptism, the blues and church choral music.
As a youth, Ailey (1931-1989) attended tiny historically Black Texas churches, including one in Rogers, a town of about 1,000 people in Bell County. Like many Black children in the rural South, he was picking cotton by age 5. It was a dangerous and exclusionary time for many African Americans in Texas; Ailey witnessed threats from the Ku Klux Klan. White men committed violence against his family.
Yet Ailey was inspired by Black culture, not only in church, but also during ecstatic social dances. The town of Rogers must have rung with music: For instance, famed soul singer Joe “Tex” Arrington, born in 1935, grew up in the same neighborhood.
In the 1990s, I attended a Sunday service at a small Black church in Rogers while working on a story about the longtime gospel group the Paramount Singers, named after Austin's Paramount Theatre. A Rogers resident confirms that it was Mt. Olive Baptist Church, which Ailey attended as a child. It is on Gulf Avenue, not far from the thoroughfare now named North Alvin Ailey Street, just northeast of the railroad tracks in Rogers.
What does 'Revelations' look and sound like?
A little over 30 minutes long in its current configuration, "Revelations" opens with dancers crouched in a low pose, accompanied by the music of harmonically rich spirituals. It proceeds in three scenes that symbolically touch on slavery, freedom and the power of faith to overcome life's obstacles.
"Pilgrim of Sorrow": Dramatically lighted, performers in flowing red-brown costumes form a central, rooted group. As they move out from the center, the performers extend their hands and arms in different directions, as if in sorrow or longing. As the music speeds up, the dancers twirl, dip, leap, fall and rise, hinting at the beginnings of resistance. A fluid duet by a male and female pair set to "Fix Me, Jesus" evokes inner strength and mutual care.
"Take Me to the Water": The second scene is as bright and hopeful as the first is dark and sorrowful. To sprightly, rhythmic music, dancers clad in white emerge onto a stage bathed in blue. One woman twirls an open, bright white umbrella while two men carry poles with fluttering attachments. It is a baptismal scene, only partly about religious faith. Through the ceremonial stages, performers move openly, freely. Translucent sheets of fabric imaginatively turn into a body of water. The spiritual "Wade in the Water" backs up increasingly euphoric movement. A knockout solo by a male performer approximates a prayer or a sermon with its virtuoso dancing. In the darkly lighted end of the scene, shirtless males run, twirl and grasp at the air in an explicit reference to escape from the enslaved condition.
“Move, Members, Move”: Sometimes referred to as the "Yellow" scene, the third section opens onto a big sun ablaze on the backdrop. A group of women in light clothes and Sunday hats use hand-held fans to whip up enthusiasm, and then men in sharp Sunday vests and dark slacks join them. To 20th century gospel music, the entire cast fills the stage in exuberant celebration.
The community attends to Alvin Ailey
In Austin, prominent African American civic groups and school parties were among the first to claim tickets to Ailey's shows at Bass. Some of their leaders were lucky enough to have lived in cities that the troupe visited often.
"Growing up on the East Coast, I had the pleasure of experiencing the work of Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison (the marquee dancer who later ran the company) and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater," said Austin civic leader Gerry J. Tucker. "The company continues to present important works in modern American dance. The dancers present the works with grace, poise and magical dancing."
The emotional link with the troupe is even greater in their home city of New York.
"I love that so many African Americans make it a point to attend Alvin Ailey shows during the holidays," playwright Thompson said. "Some of my New York City friends don't feel like it's Christmas if they don't see an Ailey show! I remember seeing them with my family and friends over the years."
Business leader Wendolyn Washington admires the company's cultural role, but also the top-notch talent.
"The dancers are gifted, graceful, synchronized and agile," Washington said. "They possess control and balance as they tell the story of the African American journey through movement. You won’t want to miss this amazing group of dancers!"
A bonus attraction for dance-loving Austinites who want to delve more deeply into the subject: UT's Harry Ransom Center houses the Fred Fehl Dance Archives, which documents through photographs the early days of the Ailey company.
"Over six decades, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has become one of the world’s premiere dance companies," said Eric Colleary, curator of performing arts at the Ransom Center, "and I’m excited to see them back in Austin."
It isn't clear why it took 15 years for the company to route its annual tour back through Austin. Current Texas Performing Arts director Bob Bursey, who arrived just in time for the pandemic pause in performance, wanted to rectify that.
"It is important to honor the artists who have been important to us during the past 40 years and to respect existing legacies," Bursey told the American-Statesman in 2021, when it was hoped that the pandemic was almost spent. "Not just 'Out with the old! In with the new!' That's not healthy. Anyway, the Alvin Ailey troupe hasn't been here since 2009."
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. March 3
Where: Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus
Tickets: Start at $64