Ailey II’s Xhosa Scott
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Category Archives: Dance
Alvin Ailey II
Last night, Anne was still not feeling well, so I took her ticket and went with Joanie to see Alvin Ailey II perform at UMSL’s Touhill. The evening’s dance concert was preceded by a rock concert performed in the auditorium’s Terrace lobby. The rock concert was a tribute to Saint Louis’s own Chuck Berry. The tribute band What the Chuck! was led by Berry’s son and includes his grandsons.
Ailey II is the company’s JV squad or as Anne likes to call them the farm team. Even so, they are still quite professional and based on the size of the house, much respected in Saint Louis. They opened their show with a hat tip to Berry and Saint Louis in a continuation of the lobby’s concert with Berry Dreamin’, a dance that featured Chuck Berry’s music.
The second act’s dance, Down the Rabbit Hole continues choreographer Houston Thomas’s earlier work and expands on its themes of examining the relationship between humans and technology. Inspired by The Matrix films, this dance explores how technology weaves itself into the fabric of our life, transforming how we as humans interact and function. Set to a techno music score, this high-powered piece asks the question: Technological change—are we powering it or is it powering us?
The final act featured Revelations, Alvin Ailey’s signature work from 1960. Inspired by the spirituals of his youth, this work features traditional gospel music. This dance is divided into three sections.
The first section, “Pilgrim of Sorrow”, begins in total stillness. When the stage is illuminated, the earthy colors of the costumes appear as drab earthtones. Ailey’s intention was to portray people attempting to rise up from the ground. The motions of these dancers also add to this portrayal. This dance has arms reaching up, as people reach skyward as they rise.
The next dance section, “Take me to the Water”, is set to the spiritual “Wade in the Water”. Which was used by slaves as a euphonism for riverbank escapes. This dance portrays a baptism, symbolizing another pathway to freedom. Bolts of fabric were waved behind the dancers to represent the water.
The final section, “Move, Members, Move” celebrates the liberating power of gospel music. It is also the most positive and uplifting section. A rousing church service is enacted complete with Sunday hats, fans and stools. The entire cast appears onstage, conveying a huge celebration.
As with any good performance in town, at its finally, this Saint Louis audience rose like a herd of clapping seals and earned an encore for its trouble.
Art Roundup
Yesterday, we went to the art museum. Driving to the DeMun neighborhood, we first had lunch at Barrio. Then we walked from there to the museum. The day’s weather was excellent, warm, almost eighty. Inside the museum, we immediately saw the Kiefer exhibit or at least part of it. It is a large show. Measured not only by the billboard size of its paintings, but also by the acreage of its display space. In addition to the original main hall, it is also using almost all of the new modern art wing. It makes a statement. The adage, size matters, seems to be its mantra. One that it is content to beat you over the head with. Anne liked the show, but I am less certain. I found much of his artwork too dark and foreboding.
But wait there’s more. Last night, we attended a Dance St. Louis concert at the Touhill. Joanie and Anne are season ticket holders and once a season Dance STL (as they now like to be called) rewards their subscribers with a free ticket. Like last season, Anne invited me with her extra ticket and Joanie invited her knitting friend, Eileen. Last season’s show was Memphis’s College Dance Collective, who won my heart with a dance performed to a recorded Dean Martin singing That’s Amore. It was performed by a single African American dancer who wore only a dance belt (look it up). What endeared me was that just the day before I had been called out in Gyrotonics for wearing a t-shirt that rode up and exposed my butt crack. When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.
Last night’s show kicked off Dance STL’s 60th season, a milestone to be sure. The performance was by American Ballet Theater Studio Company, ABT’s farm team. We were in the cheap seats, the UMSL student section, where fellow spectators would burst into applause at the drop of a hat or a pause of a step. JV or not the performers were good. They performed mainly classical ballet. An exception was Cornbread by Twyla Tharp, a hat tip to us in flyover country.
Panamanian Dancer
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Heritage Month at the Slammer
Zooming Reggie Sisters, about all things cabin related—Lunch at Barrio, with a mountain of onion rings. The DeMun neighborhood is now a historic district—Walked through the desolation that is Kennedy Forest. So many downed trees, still waiting to be cleaned up after the tornado—The Slammer is in transition this week. Summer shows have been taken down, Fall shows still in preparation. Sunday is family day at the art museum. Lots of costumes, music and dancing.
I’ve Been to the Mountaintop
Joanie and Anne are subscribers to the Dance Saint Louis series. At the end of the season, they each get a free ticket. Last night, Anne invited me. Using her extra ticket, Joanie invited Elieen, one of her and Anne’s Friday knitting friends. The show was by Memphis’s Collage Dance Collective, but before the show there was dinner at the Olympia. We of course shared saganaki, “Opa!”
Collage Dance Collective performed three dances. The first, Rise, features a voiceover of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. giving his final speech, his I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech that he gave the day before his murder in Memphis. The sight of these young people silently dancing to his stirring and prophetic words made for a powerful and moving combination that lifted my soul.
Enemy Behind the Gates is part of a larger work, Their Eyes Were Watching God and is inspired by the life of Janie Crawford, who defied societal expectations in the 1930s South to pursue true love. Its title is derived from an African proverb, “When there are no enemies within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”
The last dance, Bluff City Blues is pure Beale Street. Set to the music of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Koko Taylor it was a toe-tapping delight and guaranteed to pitch a wang dang doodle all night long. Afterwards, I was hoping for an encore, but this was ballet, and they do not do that stuff there.
