The Celebrity Series has been presenting the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Boston for the past 33 years, but some of us have Ailey memories that reach back even farther. During the summer of 1961, at the city’s summer arts festival, I remember watching a smoldering young performer standing next to a ladder shadowed in blue light. It was Alvin Ailey, the lead dancer of a company he had founded in 1958, performing Blues Suite on a stage erected on Boston Common.
Now it’s 42 years later, and the Ailey troupe is making what’s become an annual April pilgrimage to the Wang Theatre (performances start this Tuesday). The company is led by Judith Jamison, who’s responsible for a pack of memories herself. Several years after I first saw Ailey, I can recall watching an exuberant woman hold an umbrella high overhead as she stepped through the swaths of fabric replicating the currents of a river. That was Jamison in the " Wading in the Water " section of Ailey’s masterpiece, Revelations (1960). Jamison was Ailey’s Muse and star for 15 years. After retiring from the stage, she started her own company, then returned to the troupe as director after Ailey’s death, in 1989.
The company’s repertory reflects both its history — Boston audiences will see Revelations every night — and Jamison’s interest in providing opportunities for talented female choreographers. " I wanted to give more voice to female concert-dance choreographers. They don’t get on a venue as large as the Ailey company can pull in. This go-around it was Elisa Monte and Lynne Taylor-Corbett. Next year Jennifer Muller will make a piece for us. "
Monte’s Treading was brought into the repertory by Ailey in the 1980s. " Treading is a masterpiece of a duet, " Jamison says. " I have four couples who can dance it. Lynne was a member of the Ailey company in 1967. Prayers from the Edge is a Romeo-and-Juliet story based on her experiences touring with us. We were in Israel six days after the Six Day War. " Prayers and Treading will be performed on the opening night of the Boston engagement, along with Ohad Naharin’s work for the company men, Black Milk, and Revelations.
Taylor-Corbett created her work for 16 dancers. " It’s amazing when choreographers come into the company, " Jamison explains. " They always come up with a reasonable number of dancers they need, but by the time they come in and rehearse, it’s like being in a candy shop. They see how many talented dancers we have. "
The Ailey company numbers 31 dancers who work on contracts that run from 32 to 46 weeks a year. Ailey II comprises 12 dancers. " We audition for the company only in New York. I get a chance to see who is out there, but it helps if they have spent some time in the school. Everyone auditioning must have at least three techniques under their belt: ballet, of course, and [Lester] Horton, [Martha] Graham, or [Katherine] Dunham. "
Meanwhile, a new building for the Ailey organization — the performing companies; the school, which serves 3500 students each year; and the administrative offices — is under construction at 55th Street and Ninth Avenue in New York; it’s scheduled to be finished by fall of next year. The $54 million project is a 77,000-square-foot building of eight stories, two under ground and six above it, to hold 12 dance studios, including two that can be converted into black-box theaters. Jamison concludes, " We finish our spring tour of 15 weeks in mid May, three days after my 60th birthday. Who would have believed that this company would last for 45 years and that I would turn 60? "
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs at the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, April 22 through 27. Tickets are $30 to $65; children 12 and under $25. Visit the Wang box office, or go on-line at www.celebrityseries.org, or call Tele-charge at (800) 447-7400.
