Another Night, Strange Humors, Petite Mort, Revelations - Alvin Ailey Program A

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater visits the Auditorium Theatre for 10 performances, March 8-17, 2013. The company will bring 3 programs, each featuring different pieces from their repertoire.  Learn a bit about the pieces in Program A below! 

For tickets and information, click HERE.

Another Night*, Strange Humors**/Petite Mort**/Revelations 

Friday,March 8 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, March 10 at 3:00 pm
Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 16 at 2:00 pm

* Chicago Premiere
** Company Premiere


Another Night – Choreography by Kyle Abraham

Kyle Abraham, one of the most in-demand young choreographers today, presents a richly inventive contemporary jazz piece that showcases the artistry and versatility of the Ailey dancers.  Another Night was inspired by the legendary drummer Art Blakey’s interpretation of the jazz classic “A Night In Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie.

The New York Times exclaims, “Hurray to Robert Battle, now in his second year at the helm of this tradition-steeped institution, for seeking out new work from the young contemporary choreographer Kyle Abraham.”  Mr. Battle stated that “Kyle Abraham is someone I’ve known and watched for quite some time.  His work is provocative, with a diverse dance vocabulary that embodies a variety of traditions and styles.  It is the right time for him to create a new work on the dancers of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and I’m proud to be able to provide this platform for him.”

Although Another Night marks his first work for the main Company, Abraham first lent his creative voice to the Ailey organization in 2010 with The Corner, an acclaimed work commissioned by Ailey II that depicts urban social interactions through the use of contemporary and post-modern movement.


Strange Humors – Choreography by Robert Battle

Equal parts comedic and combative, Artistic Director Robert Battle’s Strange Humors is an eccentric, jocular display for two dancers.  Composer John Mackey, with whom Battle is a frequent collaborator, provides a fiery score propelled by elements of African hand drumming and Middle Eastern folk music.

Stationed far apart along a narrow shaft of light, the duo mirrors the building tension between Mackey’s string quartet and djembe with quirky spasms. They ultimately meet for an explosive confrontation of wits and prowess, as though “possessed by the force of feelings beyond their control” (The New York Times).


Petite Mort – Choreography by Jiří Kylián

Visual surprises abound in this tantalizing contemporary ballet, which blends a classical sensibility with a bold, modern wit.  The choreography includes six men, six women, and six fencing foils. The foils are, in many ways, the men's real dancing partners and sometimes turn out to be more stubborn and willful than a human partner.  Kylián also makes playful use of black baroque dresses, which seem to exist both separately from the dancers and molded to their bodies.

Czech native Jiří Kylián – “one of the most influential choreographers of the last thirty years” (New York Times) – originally created this piece for the 1991 Salzburg Festival, to mark the second centenary of the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.   Kylián set his work to two of Mozart’s most popular Piano Concertos (Nos. 21 and 23), and the gorgeous slow movements of these Concertos serve as counterpoint to the onstage jousting and coupling.


Revelations – Choreography by Alvin Ailey

Using African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues, Alvin Ailey’s Revelations fervently explores the places of deepest grief and holiest joy in the soul.  More than just a popular dance work, it has become a cultural treasure, beloved by generations of fans.SeeingRevelations for the first time or the hundredth can be a transcendent experience, with audiences cheering, singing along and dancing in their seats from the opening notes of the plaintive “I Been ’Buked” to the rousing “Wade in the Water” and the triumphant finale, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”

Ailey said that one of America’s richest treasures was the African-American cultural heritage —“sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.” This enduring classic is a tribute to that tradition, born out of the choreographer’s “blood memories” of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church. But since its premiere in 1960, the ballet has been performed continuously around the globe, transcending barriers of faith and nationality, and appealing to universal emotions, making it the most widely-seen modern dance work in the world.