Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER CITY CENTER NEW YORK, NEW YORK DECEMBER 3, 2003-JANUARY 4, 2004

No other U.S. dance company exports American good will en masse the way the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater does. And for the month of December, the Ailey company, celebrating its forty-fifth anniversary, shared its generous spirit with New York. Even when the repertoire remained uneven--plenty of times the dancers seem overqualified for the choreography--the focus, dedication, power, and presence of the Ailey team overrode everything. At the opening night gala the company, represented by Artistic Director Judith Jamison, received the fifty-second Capezio Dance Award fen its significant contribution to American dance. And then the sprint--or marathon--proceeded: five weeks of ballets, including four world premieres and two significant revivals.

Of the premieres, Alonzo King's Heart Song and Dwight Rhoden's Bounty Verses provided the most choreographic nourishment. Heart Song, set to sultry songs by three Arab composers, evoked an oasis of lush, sensual couplings, trios, and ensemble work. Particularly engaging were Clifton Brown and Benoit-Swan Pouffer as a pair of lyrical Bedouins, as well as the voluptuously languid Asha Thomas. In direct opposition, Rhoden's Bounty Verses thrust the dancers and the audience into a high-tech, pedal-to-the-metal parallel universe; no one demands more of the performers than Rhoden. An impressive structuralist, Rhoden morphed stage shapes, juxtaposing lines with ducts. Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, who rightfully seemed to take on the role of the company's high priestess this season, joined Linda Celeste Sims, Bahiyah Sayyed-Gaines, Matthew Rushing, and Jeffrey Gerodias in a hard-hitting attack. Both Rhoden and King worked collaboratively with their lighting and set designers, Michael Korsch and Robert Rosenwasser respectively, to create transfiguring landscapes on stage.

Most baffling was Juba, a premiere by Robert Battle, who has done wonderful work before, particularly for men. Although energetic, the vertically-planed choreography, set to John Mackey's Stravinsky-inspired, commissioned score, seemed wasted on the four dancers, dressed in Slavic peasant gear, who could move every which way--including loose. Hope Boykin, a delightful dancer with an unorthodox physique that never deters her, held her ground in the otherwise all-male cast. And Jennifer Muller's Footprints, full of finger pointing, long gazes, and wavelike ensemble work, seemed rather laden with unfulfilled intentions.

Two major revivals, Judith Jamison's Hymn and Donald McKayle's Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder made re-entrances into the repertoire looking fresh and relevant. Now that chain gangs have been reintroduced into the American penal system, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder elicits an unusual poignancy with its seven men, bound together in fugue-like choreography, dreaming of freedom. Vernard J. Gilmore and Brown as the hapless escapees reached for the elusive images of sweetheart, mother, and wife, embodied by the exquisite portrayal of Sayyed-Gaines in the cast I saw, at turns humorous and heart-breaking.

Dance as a documentary doesn't often function well, but artistic director Jamison's 1993 ballet Hymn--a tribute to Alvin Ailey--beat the odds, due to its intimate revelations and specificity. Using text narrated by die actress Anna Deveare Smith, compiled from interviews with Ailey dancers, Jamison succeeded because of her comfort in using language as music. For example, Dwana Adiaha Smallwood danced and mimed a woman assimilating the joys of living from her African grandmother (and re-assessing "civilization" upon returning to New York). And when Guillermo Asca related the tale of a bomb threat at an Ailey performance on tour in the South, the reality hit home, not just through words, but also the physically. That's the special power of the Ailey dancers.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater holds its New York season every December and tours much of the rest of the year.