Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Last night, I went to see the Alvin Ailey performance with Joey and Ming. I liked it, and I would recommend it to others. It was about 2 and a half hours long, including two intermissions. The dance performance was split up into three different acts, which were each completely separate and different from each other.
The first performance was a more traditional dance – the performers wore tights, and it was much like ballet. Having done ballet previously myself, I was appreciative of the performance, because the movements were done really gracefully and with a lot of body control. It wasn’t the most exciting piece, however, because it was, like I said, more traditional, focusing more on grace than on excitement. The next performance was much more attention catching, I heard it being described as Janis Joplin meets Pink Floyd. It was the life of Janis Joplin being portrayed through modern interpretive dance. All the dancers wore tie-dye, except for the character of Janis Joplin, and the character of the manager who was responsible for her corruption. The last performance was somewhat tribal, or maybe even spiritual. All the dancers wore long dresses, and danced very exuberantly – there was a lot of high-energy kicking, etc. It was a bit like the performance at B.A.M. – except I enjoyed this much more. The music was lively as well.
Overall, I thought that the performances fit together really well, even though they were so different. I enjoyed it very much!