Rebecca D Reeve's Blog

This weekend I saw Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater at Place des Arts. It was an amazing show and if you’re ever able see one of their shows I recommend it highly. Alvin Ailey was born in Texas in 1931 and when he began creating dance he drew on the ‘blood memories’ of Texas, the blues, spirituals and gospels as inspiration.

There were three acts. The first set was a collaboration with Ailey and Duke Ellington from 1970 and was series of dances reflecting nature scenes where the dancers moved like birds and rivers, and somehow it was all very romantic. The second set was created by the current artistic director Judith Jamison and was a lighter, jazzier set that had a sense of humor and made us laugh out loud. The final set was created by Ailey in the 1960s and has a heavy political weight to it given its historical context. The spiritual and gospel songs were amazing and there was a lot of strong color and fabrics used, elements that had been absent from the first set where neutral leotards and single color backdrops were the order of the day.

Watching the dancers made me acutely aware of my own physical inadequacies, right down the poor posture I was holding while watching the show. Too bad I’m not in NYC or I could stop in for a pilates or beginner dance lessons.

After the show we stopped into a lounge with some sort of experimental jazz to meet up with a birthday crew. After finishing up at the lounge (and a certain someone inspired by the show/the music? performing twirls in the snowflakes at the top of the stairs) we were all hungry and the only open spot we could find at that time was a chain poutine joint. It was a strong close to such a cultured evening. HA