photo of The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s “Uptown”

I sat one row away from the stage in the Orchestra pit at the New York City Center waiting for the show to begin. This is where The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is performing its wonderful creations, running from December 2, 2009 through January 3, 2010. I was close enough to hear the dancers’ bodies, colliding with the stage, not making a sound. I saw them mumbling, keeping time with the rhythm in their bodies.

In its fifty-year existence, approximately 21,000,000 fans in 48 states and 68 countries on six continents have seen The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. This is impressive for a company that began as a handful of young black modern dancers in the late 1950’s whose first performance was in New York’s 92nd street YM-YWHA. The company is now known as an ambassador of American culture, with a perspective rooted in the African-American experience. The dance company’s founder Alvin Ailey made it his mission to have African-Americans represented on stage, in the artistic realm of dance. Using modern dance as a vehicle, the company has in fact brought the voices of the African-American experience to the world stage. Some of AAADT’s many accomplishments include receiving the National Medal of Arts and its archives being inducted to the United States Library of Congress.

Seeing AAADT perform at the New York City Center was like witnessing synchronized heirlooms moving in step to a forward moving legacy. The compositions that made up the evenings program exhibited the classic Ailey touch with “Suite Otis,” choreographed in 1971 by George Faison. The dances also translated that tradition into the twenty first century with “Love Stories,” choreographed in 2004 by Judith Jamison with Robert Battle and Rennie Harris. The connection between the past and present was apparent most in my personal favorite, “Uptown,” choreographed in 2009 by Matthew Rushing. This ode to the Harlem Renaissance survives the intellectual and literary personalities W.E.B. Dubois and Zora Neale Hurston just as much as the musical powerhouses Cab Calloway and Josephine Baker.

The company represents the best of what America has to offer. The movement, music, costumes and culture displays a distinct history. It is amazing that a group of people can be at once underrepresented and yet make such a recognized noise throughout the world. -Janine

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Check out a video preview of “Uptown” here, and an interview with AAADT Artistic Director Judith Jamison w/ Tavis Smiley over at PBS.

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