Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which kicks off a UK tour at Sadler’s Wells, is best known for Revelations. Created by Alvin Ailey in 1960, it showcases the strength of the dancers, and the company’s roots in modern dance and African-American culture.
George W Faison’s Suite Otis, from 1971, sets a pink-clad cast strutting and boogieing to songs by Otis Redding. Men swagger with thrusting hips, while women go into giggly groups. One couple dance cheek-to-cheek, with waggling bottoms and exaggerated kissy faces.
The choreographer Robert Battle is the Ailey company’s director-designate, due to replace its charismatic present leader, the former dancer Judith Jamison. Battle’s The Hunt is a macho dance for bare-chested men in sarongs. They stride into wrestling poses, swinging their shoulders fiercely.
