Ailey is golden

Ah, yes. The glorious--and, this season, omnipresent--Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Happy 50th to the world's favorite dance company!

If everything Ailey seems blown up this season, can't you understand why? A dance troupe. Started by a black man. From a hardscrabble background in segregated Texas. Fifty years later, and look how far this baby has come. As Audre Lorde reminded us, "We were never meant to survive."

In today's hard times, the multifaceted Ailey institution is still there as a touchstone.

And that's why, when I looked around at the audience last night and saw how many black people were in attendance and then watched the company's new documentary, I was deeply moved. Let me be frank about this, once again. Black people are not flocking to dance in New York in anything approaching significant numbers that reflect the vibrant diversity of this city. In fact, my people are barely represented at all among the audiences for most of the dance shows, of any kind, that I attend.

But we are going to Ailey and that means--despite the stasis and lack of innovation that New York critics sometimes cite in their reviews--Ailey continues to serve the needs of many people across racial and cultural backgrounds. It is more than "Cultural Ambassador to the World." Ailey remains one gleaming and durable bridge out from dance to people who might not otherwise give this art form a second glance. People who are inspired by the dancers' discipline and their exalted capabilities, by the humanistic values inherent in the works, and by their generous regard for the audiences who love them.

Go in Grace--the new ensemble by Ailey dancer Hope Boykin--exemplifies and amplifies that fifty-year tradition. It is a bighearted teaching work--teaching by way of story, that is, by way of dramatic relationships and movement. It breaks no new ground for Ailey in terms of choreography--in fact, I see replicas of Boykin's own way of moving in every single step--nor does it veer too far out in terms of its theme of love, estrangement, loss and reconciliation. But it does introduce thrilling vocals by the renowned chorus of black women a capella singers, Sweet Honey in The Rock. The singers' interactions with the dancers are staged with wonderful imagination and suppleness. In this, Boykin and the Ailey troupe have shown us something different and vivid and precious.

Happy anniversary, and happy season!

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at City Center through January 4