Christmas at City Center

We went to the Holiday concert of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on Xmas Eve at City Center. We came in town early enough to have coffee, tea and chocolate cake at a coffee shop near by. City Center has undergone a beautiful renovation. We were visiting for the first time and were greatly impressed with the beautiful, opulent Moorish decor/architecture. Our seats were on the stunning Grand Tier.
The program was an intellectual and emotional delight. Much of our past –– distant and recent – was celebrated and explicated in the dances. We loved ARDEN COURT choreographed by Paul Taylor. We saw CRY, THE HUNT, REVELATIONS. We loved them all. It was rewarding to see REVELATIONS. We left the theater feeling a little as if we had danced – as though we had participated in the energy of the performance. We were in an audience of people around whom Alvin Ailey – the man and the dance company – have built a tradition. I understood things more deeply after these many decades and it was thrilling to discover this. And they were/are venerable. I was a kid when Mr. Ailey started his company. I’m not a dancer, but I am touched personally by people who have danced in the Ailey company. My experience is as an audience member. I’m venerable,too now. I have sat and watched and moved my butt about in my seat at Ailey for a lot of years. On Christmas Eve I felt exhilarated that there were movements, moments that were still being done by a different company of dancers and still eliciting a gasp of delight or throb of tearfulness. But then Christmas is the time for the shameless sentimentalist. And that was it in a nutshell for me! The Ailey program allowed me to feel sentimental, nostalgic and celebratory. But they did not stay in the past so long that they seemed mired in it. In fact they whetted our appetites to see more modern dance. I left feeling aloft. My most selfish and self revelatory reaction to the performance was that The Company, the choreographic legacy, the traditions and I/We have aged well – we’ve weathered (dare I say it ;–)) beautifully. We had a lovely time! We had a Christmastime made more festive and more bountiful by Alvin Ailey and the Ailey Company.