Sadler’s Wells, London
September 8, 2023
Another Ailey show and more last-minute programme and cast changes, this time apparently due to illness. Annoyingly, and just like two nights ago, it was probably the most interesting piece that was missing. This time, Are You In Your Feelings? By Kyle Abraham, one of America’s most exciting and innovative dance voices.
Second viewings of artistic director Robert Battle’s two roughly ten-minute shorts, For Four and Unfold, reinforced previous thoughts. For Four starts as a solo before becoming a livewire quartet. With a fair dose of classical ballet writ through the choreography, and just a dash of tap for seasoning, it fair tickles the tastebuds. Winston Marsalis’ jazz score is a blast too. If anything, it was even more alive than two nights previous, with Ashley Kaylynn Green in the lead role taking the eye throughout.
I didn’t get on quite as well with Unfold, which considers different aspects of a relationship. While the choreography certainly mirrors its music, (Leontyne Price singing ‘Depuis le jour’ from Act III of Gustave Charpentier’s opera Louise) perhaps it does so too much. It certainly feels overwrought and very unreal. Certainly not first love. Ashley Mayeux’s backbends are pretty amazing, though. How does she sustain them for so long?
Another intimate peek into the life of a couple comes in Jamar Roberts’ 20-minute duet, In a Sentimental Mood. Danced to original music by Duke Ellington alongside four jazz standards reworked and given fresh life by composer Rafiq Bhatia, it sees the seriously impressive and utterly believable Khalia Campbell and James Gilmer act and dance out their private life. Do we see everything? Probably not. You can’t help but feel the shadows of the moody, dimly-lit domestic setting (lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker) hide secrets still to be revealed.
The mood is set by the opening, crackly old recording of ‘There’s Something About an Old Love.’ In gorgeous long white coat and hat, and red gloves, an agitated, restless Campbell crosses the stage, unable it seems to go forward or return whence she came. The words of the song, “You know your affair is over, you know that the thrill is gone,” suggest that what we subsequently see is all in flashback.
It has a cinematic feel. When a scrim rises, a room is revealed. Two chairs. A coat stand. A vase of flowers on a table. And in one of those chairs, Gilmer. The music turns ominous, the dance into a bad dream. The relationship is brittle at best. The couple get close then pull away. There are moments when you sense he at least wants a reconciliation, but also that it’s too late. It’s tense. Anguish and sadness are writ large.
Campbell’s covering the prone Gilmer with her coat, much like one would cover a corpse, feels like a metaphor for the end. But there’s still time for one last try. He picks up a flower from the floor, the vase having previously been smashed, and holds it out. She refuses and leaves, as we go out just a few seconds before we came in.
Stunning, dramatic stuff, brilliantly performed.
The loss of Are You In Your Feelings? at least meant another chance to see Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit. After the Modern Masters programme, I suggested that would make a fine closing piece. It does!
An evening of varied styles, expressive bodies and energy. At different times of unbridled freedom and the joy of dance, and incredible depth. Ailey for the 2020s.
Returning to the yet another change of programme. Even given that the decision was only taken late afternoon, does a company of thirty-plus dancers really have no cover for a work that has been in the repertory almost a year? And why book if you can’t be sure to see what you booked for? But given that it happened, why was there no in-house, on-stage apology or explanation (I don’t know if people who booked online were e-mailed), merely a disembowelled voice giving a near robotic run down of the new schedule. I can’t imagine a single British director (or European, come to that), who would not have been out there in front of everyone with a mic. That would have been the courteous and respectful thing to do. But, as on Wednesday, of Battle or anyone else there was no sign. Poor show.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater are at Sadler’s Wells, London to September 16, 2023.
Ailey 2 tour the UK from September 19 to October 28, 2023. Visit danceconsortium.com for dates, venues and details.