Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 2005

“Each performance will end with Ailey’s gold-plated signature piece ‘Revelations’. It’s a deeply moving, thrillingly intense evocation of spirituals, blues and gospel songs that evoke Ailey’s own Southern Bapitist childhood in rural Texas. It is a masterly dance equivalent of revivalist testimony, charting a communal journey from baptism through despair to salvation.”

“The two programmes each consist of four dances, ending with Ailey’s Revelations (1960). the company’s signature work. Favors says: “It contains the defining element of what makes [the company] what it is… The passion, the beauty, the joy and the warmth that emanates from the dancers in this work made this company universally embraced around the world.”

“The AAADT, as the troupe is abbreviated, is a predominantly African-American company drawing on the African American heritage, be it the sorrow of blues or the pizzazz of jazz. This means you don’t often see them dance European choreography set to European music. However they did last night, and they danced it so brilliantly, and with such dazzling, throw-away insouciance that you wanted them to do it again just as soon as they’d finished.”

“The late Alvin Ailey’s voice steals out across the darkened auditorium. On stage, Clifton Brown is dancing alone as if an electric current of silky-sensual rhythm is earthing through his slinky, lissome body. It’s as if Brown is giving spontaneous, inspired expression to all that Ailey – a man he never met – wanted to celebrate with his company and his choreography.”