Hole in the Wall
Rave Review
RECEIVED Fri., March 15, 2024
Dear Editor,
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater turned Bass Concert Hall into a sacred space earlier this month.
The transformation began with a superb move. Dazzling colors leaping off the dancers’ costumes. Bursts of feeling shooting like electric currents from performer to audience.
The barrier between stage and seats disappeared; stereotypes melted; everyone joined together in striving, hoping, loving.
After the show, one patron said, “I never experienced this at a ballet.” Another said, “I want them to do it again.”
Alvin Ailey, whose mother was raped by four white men when he was 5, who saw Ku Klux Klan members in his hometown of Rogers, Texas, said, “I am trying to show the world we are all human beings, that color is not important, that what is important is the quality of our work.”
“Revelations” closed the program. During an encore, the entire house, clapping, rocked their souls “in de bosom of Abraham.”
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater turned Bass Concert Hall into a sacred space earlier this month.
The transformation began with a superb move. Dazzling colors leaping off the dancers’ costumes. Bursts of feeling shooting like electric currents from performer to audience.
The barrier between stage and seats disappeared; stereotypes melted; everyone joined together in striving, hoping, loving.
After the show, one patron said, “I never experienced this at a ballet.” Another said, “I want them to do it again.”
Alvin Ailey, whose mother was raped by four white men when he was 5, who saw Ku Klux Klan members in his hometown of Rogers, Texas, said, “I am trying to show the world we are all human beings, that color is not important, that what is important is the quality of our work.”
“Revelations” closed the program. During an encore, the entire house, clapping, rocked their souls “in de bosom of Abraham.”
Barbara Chiarello