Ailey Revels in Spiritual Flow, Flo-Jo.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater City Center New York, New York November 28-December 31, 2001

The incredible dignity and power of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater shone at City Center last winter: The only drawback to their season was navigating through the hordes of patrons into the theater. The dancers' charisma and versatility--mastering works by choreographers as diverse as Ailey, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Ron Brown, and Artistic Director Judith Jamison in a single evening--could explain the mass turnout. Even in works lacking the power and profundity of Zollar's Shelter and Brown's new Serving Nia, these dancers deliver performances that defy expectation.

Following last season's Grace, Serving Nia is another original and instantly classic work for the company by Brown. His earthy, funky, limb-flying movement enables the cast of nine to showcase their multifaceted techniques. Set to music by Roy Brooks, Branford Marsalis, M'Bemba Bangoura, and Dizzy Gillespie, the piece suggests an abstract tale of elders and youngers--"kings and servants," Brown mentions in program notes. The title means "serving purpose" in Swahili, and the all-male cast moved with determination, whether walking, standing, leaping, gliding across the stage, or rippling their torsos. Brown's choreography comes in spurts of movement similar to sentences in a conversation: Kinetic phrases are juxtaposed with pauses or pedestrian-like walking. Contrasting groupings of two and three men--some stand and watch while others groove and writhe--mirror the intricacies of the music. Lighthearted joy enters the scene with Gillespie's "Swing Low Sweet Cadillac."

Like Grace, Nia has a spiritual feel, a sense of community created by the dancers' awareness of one another rather than performing for the audience. Jeffrey Gerodias was a master of subtlety, bringing a sense of genuine curiosity and joy to his performance. Abdur-Rahim Jackson was another standout, inhabiting Brown's movement style so completely it looked like his own.

The season's other premiere, Jamison's Here ... Now, commissioned for the 2002 Cultural Olympiad of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games, will be performed again in February in Salt Lake City. A tribute to runner Florence Griffith Joyner, this piece for three men and three women is set to music by Wynton Marsalis. FloJo, fast, glamorous, and superhuman, inspired athletes not only with her speed but also with her style. Images of her mid-race--arms pumping, quadriceps bulging, hair billowing--are etched in the memories of those who watched her win three gold medals in the 1988 Olympics.

Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell opened and closed Here ... Now by walking stage right to stage left, at first in a translucent white robe suggesting FloJo as angel. (The runner died in 1998.) Jamison's choreography vacillates between mimicry--dancers pretending to stretch and run--and ballet/jazz choreography. All of it looked familiar--except the shiny, glow-in-the-dark running suits designed by Emilio Sosa. Al Crawford III's scenic design--a large Nike Swoosh-like symbol--hung inexplicably over the stage (a reminder of athletic endorsements?). The set also included a curved ramp that the dancers occasionally slid down and used as a springboard.

Of the five sections--"Speed," "Strength," "Style," "Pain," and "Heaven"--"Pain," performed by Bahiyah Sayyed-Gaines and Glenn A. Sims, was the most effective. Facing each other and trying to pass by one another, the couple created images of runners struggling with obstacles or "walls." Marsalis's score, more spare and percussive in this section, allowed the audience to hear the dancers' breathing. When Sims lifted Sayyed-Gaines, she seemed to waver between acquiescing and continuing onward. In the final pose of "Pain," he held her legs in the air as she clutched his thigh. Her body became a diagonal pointing toward the floor, and the audience hollered.