There’s something generous about Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It’s there in the dancing – full of skill, passion and a charismatic warmth not always seen in contemporary dance companies. It’s there too in the programming: at Sadler’s Wells over the coming week, the company will perform four carefully curated bills, full of rarely seen and new work. At the same time, the young company Ailey II sets off on tour around Britain, with more treats planned.
For all the new commissions on display, nearly every bill ends with Revelations, Ailey’s 1960 tribute to the gospel music of his southern childhood, full of agonised reaching for salvation and joyful stretches into the light. For those of us who have watched the company, it feels as if it might be overfamiliar. Yet the dancers fill it with a rounded sense of character and a deep understanding of its significance.
