The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater return to South Africa for the first time this millenium. Diane de Beer spoke to Artistic Director, Robert Battle
Alvin Ailey’s vision for his contemporary dance company as a repertory company meant they reached far and wide for choreographers. This is still what drives the current (and only third ) artistic director, Robert Battle, following the legendary Ailey himself and then the iconic Judith Jamison.
“It’s always about opportunity and keeps us in the past, present and future,” he says as a prelude to their South African tour that starts at Joburg’s Teatro on September 3 and runs for 13 performances. They then move to Cape Town’s Artscape for six performances, opening on September 16.
In the job for four years, he has embraced the Ailey ethos from the start. His first experience of Ailey’s revelatory Revelations, which is part of every performance in South Afirca, is what first turned his heart and head to dance.
“My whole world was illuminated when I saw Revelations,” he says and believes seeing this Ailey heartbeat experience is as important as knowing who Dr Martin Luther King is. “People who looked like me, danced a history I knew.”
It’s also about inclusivity and the goal pushed by Ailey that great art should be a universal experience. “Before outreach was such a huge thing, he was out there taking dance to especially those without opportunity,” says Battle who is excited about the development challenges they are up for in South Africa.
“He knew that we should step off the stage because it was all about extending art and education to young people who should experience this transformative thing. Everybody should have access.”
That is what their most iconic dance choreographed by Ailey, Revelations, is about. Ailey understood that everyone would connect to the spirituality of the piece and find their own. “He is holding a mirror to society to show them how beautiful everyone is and emphasising that we’re all more alike than not.”
These are the traditions that Batte is expanding on and confesses that he is simply “standing on their shoulders”.
Staying with the ethos of the company, one of his most precious tasks is to take them forward by making connections and exploring relationships. “It’s about bringing people together,” and he’s speaking in a dance rather than a romantic sense, he notes. It’s one of his most exciting, but also important tasks to find those connections that will work on stage.
“It’s like matchmaking,” he says and he loves the process of making that happen and then witnessing the results.
It’s what defines a company not only for audiences, but also for those participating, like the dancers.
“I’ve thrown different things at them which challenges them, keeps them on their toes,” he says.
And the things that caught him unawares, but also inspired him as artistic director, were welcoming new dancers into the company. “It wasn’t something I had thought about until it happened the first time,” he explains. “That moment of telling someone their audition had been successful, the emotion that goes with that for specific individuals took me back to when I was standing there,” he says.
For him it was like going back to his youth. “If I can stay in touch with that young self… that’s what it takes.”
It’s what this company is about and we will see that in their dance, one of which is a choreo-graphed work by Battle, Takademe. When you hear the unsual music, you won’t easily forget.
“I was given this piece of music which was the vocalised syllables of a Sheila Chandra syncopated score,” he says.
It so excited him that he started choreographing, but in a very tiny space, a lounge of a flat. “It meant that the first solo of the work doesn’t allow the dance to travel,” he says. And now he’s amused that his position allows it to travel the world! It started so small.
The influences are strongly Indian and he thinks back to his days at Juliard when he used to peek in at the Indian dance class: “I was fascinated by the hand, feet and head movements.” Watching Takademe today, he can also see the influence of his early Michael Jackson admiration, which again shows the importance of exposure on any level.
This is Battle’s first visit to South Africa and he’s excited. This is what the Alvin Ailey company represents for him. “We have been named ‘world ambassadors’,” he says.
He also underlines that his driving force has always been the following: “I am a human being and nothing human can be alien to me.”
It’s his ethos, the one he lives by and the one that infuses his company.
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
The choice between the two programmes is not an easy one, so they have simplified it by including Revelations in both. Here is some helpful information, but perhaps it’s easiest to see both:
JOBURG SHOW INFORMATION
VENUE: Teatro at Montecasino
DATES & TIMES: Sept 3 to Sept 13. Wed to Frid: 8pm; Sat: 2pm and 8pm; Sun: 1.30pm and 6.30pm
Two programmes, A and B, alternate and are each about two hours long including:
Programme A (Sept 3, 9, 11 at 8pm; Sept 5 at 2pm; Sept 6 at 1.30pm; Sept 12 at 8pm; Sept 13 at 6.30pm): Polish Pieces/Takademe /Grace/Revelations;
Programme B (Sept 4, 5, 10 at 8pm; Sept 6 at 6.30pm; Sept 12 at 2pm; Sept 13 at 1.30pm): Night Creature, After the Rain pas de deux/Exodus/ Revelations
Exodus is a world premiere by hip hop choreographer Rennie (Lorenzo) Harris and explores the idea of “exodus” – from one’s ignorance and conformity – as a necessary step towards enlightenment. “Our view of the world is only limited by our imagination,” says Robert Battle when talking about this work which introduces music including gospel and house with poetic narration.
It’s the juxtaposition with the previous work that excites Battle because the choreographer comes from a balletic background. He describes After the Rain pas de deux choreography by Christopher Wheeldon as a “subtle dreamlike duet” – praised for its sublime simplicity and intricate partnering set to the music of Arvo Pärt.
In Polish Pieces, Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen displays his mastery for building dazzling creations from simple motifs and geometric patterns. Driven by Henryk Górecki’s score, the 12 dancers create a brilliant kaleidoscope through endlessly shifting formations.
Repertory favourites and classics:
Grace is infused with Robert K Brown’s signature blend of modern dance and West African idioms set to a Duke Ellington soundtrack, Come Sunday, Roy Davis’s hit Gabriel and the powerful rhythms of Fela Kuti’s Afro-pop. Night Creature, also choreographed by Alvin Ailey, showcases Ellington again in a homage to his jazz and this remains one of Ailey’s most popular works.