“Pilgrim of Sorrow” portion of Zellerbach Hall concert in Berkeley features familiar stance of Alvin Ailey dance troupe.
By WOODY WEINGARTEN
The 2,000-seat Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley was packed for Saturday’s matinee. The crowd blended nicely with the 7 or 8 folks in the audience who’d never before seen the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
For many, it’s been too long, their first reprise since the beginning of the pandemic.
Despite two Bay Area premieres being on the bill, no one apparently wanted to wait for the forever favorite, “Revelations,” the troupe’s signature piece, sometimes labeled the most-seen modern dance in the world.
When it happened, after the second intermission, the entire place seemed to go bonkers — as if a stadium of high schoolers were rooting for a local championship football team.
The final section of the 10-part gospel-based composition, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,” was a presentation so rousing that the throng stood like an army in a unified, predictable standing ovation, clapping rhythmically and weaving and dancing in front of its seats.
It was awesome how so many folks were led into their happy place all at once, and no one even left “to beat the crowd” in a rush to get out of a parking lot.
“Revelations,” of course, featured the stylized, instantly recognizable hand, head, and body movements that have delineated Alvin Ailey’s choreography since the piece debuted in 1960, two years after he founded the company.
It all holds up today. Exquisitely. With grace and fervor.
Virtually every component of the composition amped up the volume and pace, forcing concertgoers’ excitement to rise accordingly until a roar shook the walls of the hall. It all fit perfectly, somehow, like a 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
Early parts used no props or backdrops, allowing the audience to focus solely on the skill of the multi-racial company. Then, when the movements became as pure as the all-white costumes, “Wade in the Water” spotlighted a long fabric that transformed into lovely, nearly believable waves.
“Sinner Man” provided a hellish backdrop of flames and a trio of male dancers — Xavier Logan, Jessie Obremski, and Mason Evans — whose frenetic energy was exhausting just to witness. Without a zombie in sight.
The middle section of the concert, “Embrace,” featured five low tables that, when turned on their sides, allowed dancers to slither onto them. It also displayed exciting, emotional choreography by Frederick Earl Mosley to recorded melodies by Pink, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder, and Kate Bush.
A rising and falling moon that showcased glistening craters and changing colors hung from semi-invisible wires.
The program said that “Embrace” examined “the ups and downs of human connections — messy, beautiful, and everything in between.”
In “Jazz Island,” a Caribbean folk character, Erzulie, Afro-Haitian goddess of love, takes over the stage — and the story.
True. It depicted 5 or 6 — maybe, 50 — shades of love, including an unsatisfying gay relationship whose raw emotion was best depicted when each half of the almost-couple is sitting on opposite sides of stage with his back to the audience.
“Jazz Island,” the concert’s opener, was based on a Caribbean folk tale and choreographed by Maija Garcia, a Cuban American whose history has included stage productions. The problem was that the piece’s narrative —adapted from Black Gods, Green Islands by Geoffrey Holder — was excessive, leaving nothing to the imagination, leaving little to be fascinated by.
Costuming by Carlton Jones, however, did stand out, particularly the outfit of two main characters, Erzulie, an Afro-Haitian goddess of love, and Baron Samedi, guardian of the dead.
The main plotline revolved around an arranged marriage between Bashiba, a flower girl, and a stereotypical wealthy guy despite her having fallen in love with a traveler, Jean-Claude Louis.
The Ailey troupe is now under the leadership of Alicia Graf Mack, a former star dancer with the company. She’s its fourth artistic director — and obviously has an ultra-high bar to replicate or surpass.
Highlights of what’s coming up soon at Zellerbach Hall under the auspices of Cal Performances include the Joffrey Ballet’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” April 17-19, and a May 3 recital with soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Inon Barnatan.
Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites,https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitalitypress.com.
