Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, flourishing in its 40th anniversary year under the stewardship of Judith Jamison, plays its annual engagement at the Kennedy Center next week.
This has been going on since the Ailey dancers opened the Kennedy Center as part of the ensemble for Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" in 1975.
As always, the company has brought a full slate of new works and great vintage pieces. You can see the immortal "Revelations," Ailey's tribute to black spirituals, on five of the seven programs; or George Faison's homage to Otis Redding, "Suite Otis," on three.
Works new to Washington-area audiences include Faison's "Slaves"; Talley Beatty's gymnastic "The Stack Up"; "Bad Blood" by the late Ulysses Dove, whose choreographic career was tragically cut short by AIDS; "Fin de Siecle," a much-acclaimed piece by Donald Byrd that looks forward and back as we approach the millennium; and Lar Lubovitch's complex teaser "The Time Before the Time After (After the Time Before)."
The Ailey company will perform in the Kennedy Center Opera House, off Virginia and New Hampshire avenues N.W., Washington, at 8 p.m. Tuesday through April 24, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. April 25 and 2 p.m. April 26. Tickets are $28-$50. Call 202-833-9800.
Pub Date: 4/16/98
