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\u201cPilgrim of Sorrow\u201d portion of Zellerbach Hall concert in Berkeley features familiar stance of Alvin Ailey dance troupe.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>By WOODY WEINGARTEN<\/strong><\/p>\n The 2,000-seat Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley was packed for Saturday\u2019s matinee. The crowd blended nicely with the 7 or 8 folks in the audience who\u2019d never before seen the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.<\/p>\n For many, it\u2019s been too long, their first reprise since the beginning of the pandemic.<\/p>\n Despite two Bay Area premieres being on the bill, no one apparently wanted to wait for the forever favorite, \u201cRevelations,\u201d the troupe\u2019s signature piece, sometimes labeled the most-seen modern dance in the world.<\/p>\n When it happened, after the second intermission, the entire place seemed to go bonkers \u2014 as if a stadium of high schoolers were rooting for a local championship football team.<\/p>\n The final section of the 10-part gospel-based composition, \u201cRocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n It was awesome how so many folks were led into their happy place all at once, and no one even left \u201cto beat the crowd\u201d in a rush to get out of a parking lot.<\/p>\n \u201cRevelations,\u201d of course, featured the stylized, instantly recognizable hand, head, and body movements that have delineated Alvin Ailey\u2019s choreography since the piece debuted in 1960, two years after he founded the company.<\/p>\n It all holds up today. Exquisitely. With grace and fervor.<\/p>\n Virtually every component of the composition amped up the volume and pace, forcing concertgoers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n 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, \u201cWade in the Water\u201d spotlighted a long fabric that transformed into lovely, nearly believable waves.<\/p>\n \u201cSinner Man\u201d provided a hellish backdrop of flames and a trio of male dancers \u2014 Xavier Logan, Jessie Obremski, and Mason Evans \u2014 whose frenetic energy was exhausting just to witness. Without a zombie in sight.<\/p>\n The middle section of the concert, \u201cEmbrace,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n A rising and falling moon that showcased glistening craters and changing colors hung from semi-invisible wires.<\/p>\n The program said that \u201cEmbrace\u201d examined \u201cthe ups and downs of human connections \u2014 messy, beautiful, and everything in between.\u201d<\/p>\n In \u201cJazz Island,\u201d a Caribbean folk character, Erzulie, Afro-Haitian goddess of love, takes over the stage \u2014 and the story.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n True. It depicted 5 or 6 \u2014 maybe, 50 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n \u201cJazz Island,\u201d the concert\u2019s 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\u2019s narrative \u2014adapted from Black Gods, Green Islands<\/em> by Geoffrey Holder \u2014 was excessive, leaving nothing to the imagination, leaving little to be fascinated by.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Ailey troupe is now under the leadership of Alicia Graf Mack, a former star dancer with the company. She\u2019s its fourth artistic director \u2014 and obviously has an ultra-high bar to replicate or surpass.<\/p>\n Highlights of what\u2019s coming up soon at Zellerbach Hall under the auspices of Cal Performances include the Joffrey Ballet\u2019s \u201cMidsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d April 17-19, and a May 3 recital with soprano Ren\u00e9e Fleming and pianist Inon Barnatan.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sherwood \u201cWoody\u201d 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\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or on his websites,<\/em>https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and <\/em>https:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0By WOODY WEINGARTEN The 2,000-seat Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley was packed for Saturday\u2019s matinee. The crowd blended nicely with the 7 or 8 folks in the audience who\u2019d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":4.7,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-111484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo","7":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Caption2-3-scaled.jpg\")