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 The Theatreguide.London Review

In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others by streaming new shows, and various online archives preserve still more vintage productions. Even as things return to normal we continue to review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.

Revelations
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and YouTube   April 2025

Several decades ago I was walking in New York with an older friend when we passed a theatre featuring the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre.

Seeing that Revelations was on the programme that night, he told me 'You have to see this.' Being, as I said, some time ago, ticket prices still allowed for impulse buys like that and I bought one for that night.

I had interpreted 'You have to see this' as meaning it was one of those obligations that you had to check off the list to call yourself cultured. I didn't know I was going to have one of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life.

Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) was an African-American dancer and choreographer. Finding very few opportunities for black dancers in either the worlds of classical ballet or modern dance, he formed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 1958 to combine the two forms with black traditions and black dancers.

Revelations (1960) was one of his masterpieces and became the company's signature work, still a centre of its repertoire. And it is wonderful.

The 35-minute piece is made up of about a dozen short dances (a mix of solos, duets, trios and group pieces) set to traditional African-American spirituals, each reflecting the tone or essence of the music while also being a display of virtuoso technical ability.

The opening, 'I Been Buked,' involves almost no movement of feet as choreographed hands and arms reach upward to heaven, while 'I Wanna Be Ready' is a solo danced almost entirely while lying down.

In 'Fix Me Jesus' a male dancer repeatedly supports or catches a woman unable to hold herself up, but beyond the literal interpretation of the lyrics is a fascinating and beautiful study in balance and imbalance as she keeps coming right to the edge of falling and he rebalances her with just the slightest touch.

Appropriately, the general movement of the dances is from despair through hope to joyous celebration.

The choreography of 'Wade In The Water' suggests a baptism but is really a celebration of being saved (Keep your eye on the woman with the parasol, life-affirming just by the way she moves). And 'The Day Is Past And Gone' takes delight in a congregation of church ladies unable to remain prim and proper when the spirit moves them.

The ballet ends with 'Rock My Soul In The Bosom Of Abraham,' a joyous dance of faith and joy so irresistible you want it to go on forever – and it does, with an encore even more thrilling than the first time through.

YouTube has two complete recordings of live performances, along with several excerpts from others. I suggest the one from Lincoln Center, a technically excellent video that captures all Revelations' beauty and excitement.

You have to see this.

Gerald Berkowitz