It was 55 years ago that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) made its Celebrity Series Boston debut with two performances on January 27, 1968, at John Hancock Hall. It was a watershed event for gay dancer-choreographer Ailey, who founded his company in 1958 but wasn’t yet the iconic artist he’d become. The relationship with Boston was important to his rising career and after its 1968 debut, AAADT has been an almost annual Celebrity Series event in Boston.
Ailey, who died at 58 from AIDS complications in 1989, was intensely private; many colleagues didn’t know he was gay. It’s a much difference AAADT that returns to Boston May 4–7 at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. There are several out company dancers led by the longest tenured Company Member, Vernard Gilmore. In 2017, Gilmore was honored in the annual OUT 100 LGBT icons issue. He is featured in Ailey’s signature masterpiece “Revelations,” which closes all performances in the Boston run.
Since its creation in 1960, “Revelations” has been seen by more audiences globally than any other modern dance work. It was part of the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Olympics and has been presented at the White House on numerous occasions, including at the inaugurations of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Choreographed when Ailey was only 29 years old, “Revelations” is an intimate reflection inspired by childhood memories of attending services at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Texas and by the work of Harlem Renaissance writers James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. Set to a suite of traditional spirituals ranging from the plaintive “I Been ’Buked” to the rousing “Wade in the Water” and the triumphant finale “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,” the renowned work honors the cultural heritage of African Americans through music and movement that conveys the emotional spec-trum of the human condition.
Vernard Gilmore also dances alongside out dancer Ghrai DeVore-Stokes in “Survivors,” a new production of Ailey’s 1986 work co-choreographed with Mary Barnett as a tribute to Nelson and Winnie Mandela. Set to Max Roach’s richly varied drumming and Abbey Lincoln’s vocals, it’s a powerful work about injustice and a tribute to those who resist oppression in any form making the piece both timely and timeless.
Another out Ailey dancer, Michal Jackson Jr., is featured in acclaimed gay choreographer Kyle Abraham’s newest work, “Are You in Your Feelings?” It’s Abraham’s third choreographed piece for the Ailey Company. Scored to a mixtape of soul, hip-hop and R&B, “Are You In Your Feelings?” celebrates Black culture and Black music as it explores the connections between music, communication and personal memory.
Besides Ailey and Abraham, choreographers showcased during the company’s five-performance Boston engagement include AAADT Artistic Director Robert Battle, contemporary dancemaker Jamar Roberts and acclaimed veterans Twyla Tharp and Paul Taylor. Four works on the program are Boston premieres.
Jamar Roberts’ “In a Sentimental Mood” explores love and desire set to Duke Ellington’s original composition and four other jazz standards given avant-garde twists by composer Rafiq Bhatia. In the fifth piece that he’s created for the Ailey company, Roberts bridges past and present to make music classics fresh, relevant and timely. The dance features DeVore-Stokes along with Chalvar Monteiro who also dances in Twyla Tharp’s “Roy’s Joys,” a sultry 1997 piece that premiered with the Ailey Company in 2022 and mixes modern dance and ballet techniques set to a jazz soundtrack by Roy Eldridge.
Ailey’s 1975 work “Night Creature” also pays homage to Ellington’s music. Ailey was inspired by Ellington’s quote that, “night creatures, unlike stars, do not come out at night — they come on, each thinking that, before the night is out, he or she will be the star.” The large ensemble in “Night Creature” struts, leaps and slinks through modern dance, classical ballet and jazz moves.
Paul Taylor’s 1964 “Duet,” also a 2022 AAADT premiere, is brief and beautifully shaped performance set to the music of Franz Josef Haydn. Robert Battles’s 2021 dance “For Four” is playfully inspired by Wynton Marsalis’s jazz score, written in 4/4 time, and features four Ailey dancers who recreate how pent-up energy transforms into a desire to create and perform. Also in the program is Battle’s sensuous, swirling duet “Unfold” (2007) which evokes the tenderness and ecstasy in composer Gustave Charpentier’s “Depuis le jour” from the opera “Louise,” sung by the legendary Leontyne Price.”
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