 |
Music •
Biography •
Press Kit •
Randomness •
Lyrics Gigs • Photos • Writing • Fun Stuff • Links • Contact |
Saturday, March 31, 2007 Alvin Ailey, or Hearing Your Recorded Voice in a 4000-Seat Auditorium Last Thursday I was privileged to see one of my favorite dance companies at the beginning of their Chicago residency--Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the best modern companies in the US and easily the world. They have a tendency to eschew sets for elegant lighting that puts the focus on their dancers, rather than on any technical aspects of production, and their pieces tend to be both artistic and accessible. The night opened with "Grace" by Ronald K. Brown. I saw Brown's company, Evidence, years ago and thought the company was mediocre--but the choreography here was simply beautiful, and combined with Ailey dancers the result was, in a word, explosive. The piece started with the spotlight on a solo female dancer in white and moved to contrasts between red- and white-clad dancers. Lord, oh Lord above / God of heaven, Lord of love / Please look down and see my people through. Arrangements of Ellington's "Come Sunday" wove themselves through the work, and days later I still have the melody in my head. It's rare too when a piece of art moves me near to tears as I watch a concert; that night the dancers weren't just performing--they were expressing a deep part of themselves and their own struggles. Carmen de Lavallade's "Sweet Bitter Love" focused entirely on another solo dancer--in this case Renee Robinson, who was celebrating the amazing feat of dancing with Ailey for 25 years--in a slim, formal gown, obviously longing for her lover. While it was an elegant piece, the movement here was nothing particularly special. Uri Sands's "Existence Without Form" was where things got interesting for me on a personal level--I was admittedly rather distracted throughout the piece, focusing instead on the music and my own performance (a little silly perhaps, since it's far too late to change anything). Composer Christian Matjias recorded my vocal improvisations over his piano work last spring, and it was at once exciting and disconcerting to hear the vocalise filling the auditorium. Christian's music is gorgeous (and while I'm sure it would often fit the Oshkosh pastor's criteria for "good" music, it definitely does make the body "want to dance"). And I liked how my work turned out as well--he juxtaposed a take where I improvised with my lower range in a continuous stream with one where I sang in my upper range and darted in and out of the piano's notes; I was singing duets with myself in a bit of a call-and-response. There's little need to comment on "Revelations," a beautiful work which has been the company's signature piece for years. When I saw Ailey last perform in the 2000/2001 season, I was privileged to see the piece combined with a live gospel choir, but only the final section missed that energy. I left the theatre thinking that I miss collaborating with artists from different disciplines, something I did more often in college--it's nice to take a break from the singer-songwriter, folk-pop sound once in a while. Labels: concerts, dance, musicians, performing ^ Top | 11:22 PM | | | 
|
