50 YEARS OF AILEY IN
BOSTON:
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
RETURNS FOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY PERFORMANCES MARCH 22-25, 2018
Boch Center Wang Theater -- Thu
7:30p | Fri 8p | Sat 2p and 8p | Sun 3p
Premieres, New
Productions and the Masterpiece “Revelations” Highlight a Dynamic Repertoire.
Lawrence, Mass.
Native Belén Pereyra-Alem Returns to Boston in
Her Seventh Season.
Performances and
community events honor the Ailey Company’s 1968 Boston Debut.
BOSTON — Celebrity Series of Boston welcomes the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater back to Boston March 22-25, 2018 at the Boch Center
Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street. The culminating event of a four-month, 50th
Anniversary celebration of the Ailey Company’s 1968 Boston debut, the
performances bring to audiences an array of Boston premieres, new productions of
classic works, and a nightly finale of Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations, which was seen at the company’s first Boston
performance and has since become the world’s best-known work of modern dance.
Highlights
of the 2018 Ailey run are below; a full schedule of
the five-performance repertoire follows.
Company
and Boston Premieres
·
Ailey star Jamar Roberts’ Members
Don’t Get Weary is his first world premiere for the Company, where
he has danced since 2002. Roberts calls the work “a response to the current social landscape in
America,” that “takes an abstract look into the notion of ‘having the blues.’”
Set to legendary jazz saxophonist/composer John Coltrane’s “Dear Lord” (1965)
and “Olé” (1961), with a title inspired by a black spiritual, Roberts says the
work was created to be “in line with Mr. Ailey’s vision.”
·
Spanish choreographer Gustavo
Ramírez Sansano works with the Ailey Company for the first time for his
world premiere, Victoria (“Victory”). Set to an
adaptation of Beethoven’s Seventh
Symphony by award-winning composer Michael Gordon, Victoria is both vital and
of-the-moment. Sansano’s
work has appeared on companies around the world,
including Nederlands Dans Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Atlanta Ballet
and more.
·
Ailey Artistic
Director Robert
Battle’s Mass (2004;
2017 Company Premiere; Boston Premiere) features a score by Battle’s frequent
collaborator John Mackey (the 2015 world premiere Awakening). Commissioned originally for The Juilliard
School, Mass is an ensemble work that
gives physical life to a haunting score and showcases Battle’s signature
ritualistic choreography.
New
Productions
·
The
Ailey program honors modern dance pioneer Talley
Beatty during his centennial with the return of Stack-Up, which is set in a
crowded disco and the urban landscape that surrounds it, with a background of vibrant
1970s beats by Earth, Wind & Fire, Grover Washington Jr., Fearless Four,
and Alphonze Mouzon. Inspired by Los
Angeles and the lives of its disparate inhabitants, Stack-Up
reflects the “emotional traffic” of a
community where people live “stacked up.” Beatty has a Boston connection.
He was a frequent teacher at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts; his Talley
Beatty Company was acquired by the school to become its first professional
performing arts group in residence.
· Tony Award-winning
choreographer Twyla Tharp’s The Golden Section is a sizzling
ensemble work filled with breathtaking leaps, finely-honed partnering and explosive
joy set to a propulsive score by David Byrne.
Returning Works
· Where Jamar Robert’s Members Don’t
Get Weary is danced to music by John Coltrane, who died 50 years before it
was created, Artistic Director Robert Battle’s 2008 piece Ella
was a company premiere that came to Boston in 2017, the centenary year of jazz
legend Ella Fitzgerald’s birth. A
tour-de-force duet is set to Fitzgerald’s virtuosic scatting in the song
“Airmail Special,” Ella will be
presented on the company’s final Boston performance along with two other works
by Battle: Mass (described above);
and In/Side, a gripping solo in which
a man deals with his most private struggles, set to Nina Simone’s “Wild is the
Wind,”
· Alvin Ailey’s signature piece Revelations (1960), caps each
program during the five-performance run. More than just a popular dance, Revelations has been called a cultural
treasure and a uniquely American classic beloved by generations. The work is
built on African-American spirituals that explore places of deep grief and holy
joy. Boston audiences return annually to see Revelations and cheer, sing along and dance in their seats -- from
the plaintive opening notes of “I Been ’Buked” to the rousingly rhythmic “Wade
in the Water” and the triumphant finale, “Rocka My Soul.”
Programs
by performance
The
Golden Section (Twyla Tharp, 1983)
In/Side (Robert Battle, 2008)
Revelations (Alvin Ailey, 1960)
Ella
(Robert
Battle, 2008)
Revelations (Alvin Ailey, 1960)
Saturday, March 24, 2pm
Members Don’t Get Weary ^* (Jamar Roberts, 2017)
Members Don’t Get Weary ^* (Jamar Roberts, 2017)
The Golden Section (Twyla Tharp, 1983)
In/Side (Robert Battle, 2008)
Revelations (Alvin Ailey, 1960)
Saturday, March 24, 8pm
Stack-Up (Talley Beatty, 1982)
Stack-Up (Talley Beatty, 1982)
Victoria (Gustavo
Ramírez Sansano, 2017)
Ella (Robert Battle, 2008)
Revelations (Alvin Ailey, 1960)
Ella (Robert Battle, 2008)
The Golden Section (Twyla Tharp, 1983)
In/Side (Robert Battle, 2008)
Revelations (Alvin Ailey, 1960)
*Alvin
Ailey Boston premiere
^Alvin Ailey Company premiere 2017
^Alvin Ailey Company premiere 2017
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