To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the Fall for Dance show. No matter how famous the Alvin Ailey Dance Company was, I just didn’t know if I could sit through two hours of interpretative dance. The first performance at the show did not do much to clear my doubts. “Le Spectre de la Rose” was, while extremely interesting to look at and exciting for the first few minutes, rather disappointing. There was nothing in the dance that made me want to keep watching and at times, I did not want to keep straining to the see the stage (my seats were rather inconvenient as you could only see 3/4th of the stage).
The next performance, called “The Dying Swan,” was conducted with so much feeling and grace that I was immediately pulled in and couldn’t stop watching. Diana Vishneva performed this 1905 Russian ballet with a certain rawness that was much needed in the piece. Her motions portrayed her as dying and yet beautiful. That is when my hopes for the night began to rise and I settled in my seat, excited for the next performance.
And like all seesaws, Fall for Dance brought me down once again. “Snow” was aesthetically pleasing and watching Sang Jijia moving with extreme precision at such a rapid speed was extremely enrapturing… until it never seemed to end. Jijia seemed to keep going and going, and while the musical accompaniment was extremely well chosen (it was one of my favorites all night), I began wondering how much longer this could go on. Half the time, Jijia was on the side of the stage I couldn’t even see.
Finally, it was time for the Alvin Ailey performance. Needless to say, at this point I was a bit wary of all the praise I’d heard and wanted to wait before I got excited. Alvin Ailey’s dance troupe did not disappoint at all. In fact, they just about erased all my negative thoughts about the show and let me enjoy the last part of the show so much that I forgot about my qualms from before. The dancers were bursting with energy and emotion, and it was visible not only through their movements but also their facial expressions. I inched up to the edge of my seat and strained to see every dancer on stage, because missing any bit of the performance would make me feel robbed. The songs were catchy and made the audience want to sing/clap along. Watching the dancers animated faces made me more excited about their dance than they probably were. With each song, the dancing only got better and I was sad to see it end.
On the whole, the Fall for Dance show was definitely an experience worth having and the organizers made a good decision leaving Ailey for the end (therefore leaving pleasant memories in peoples’ minds).
