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Spectacular Season For Alvin Ailey Exceeds Expectations with Premieres and New Works
This season more than satisfied enthusiasts of the great art of movement with choreographic storytelling where the bar was raised to heights higher than the clouds. And if that wasn’t enough, the Alvin Ailey dancers stepped and pirouetted as if they were the air itself threading through the billows. The portrayal of “Greenwood” inspired by the 1921 alleged assault of a young white female teenager by a black male teenager in an elevator was outstanding. The incident subsequently caused riots by a white mob that destroyed burgeoning black wall street in Tulsa. “Greenwood” is a performance oxymoron — exquisite and hideous. Donald Byrd is the genius choreographer behind “Greenwood.” He executes this work with unstoppable imagination and metronome timing.
Jaquelin Green was superb as a kind of spirit appearing from the mist of African American slavery, opening the door on future history, prophetically sharing the tale of “Greenwood,” and navigating the terrain of the community. Clifton Brown, Chalvar Monterio, Danica Paulos, Solomon Dumas, Jaquelin Harris, and Ghrai DeVore-Stokes were all superb playing out the stories of family prosperity, attraction, love, and destruction. Mr. Byrd and costume designer Doris Black cleverly cloaked the mob in metallic head to toe sci-fi uniforms instead of Klansman white…
