Ailey Performances Are Fresh and Fluid to the End

Wrapping up a six-performance engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre on the weekend, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre kept its flame burning hot with three vintage Ailey works and the local premiere of a Judith Jamison piece from 1998.

Ailey’s choreography, looking strong and fresh, fairly glowed. On Saturday night, dancers in “Streams� poured themselves into positions as if they were melted steel, and showed a level of technique practically unheard of when the piece was created in 1970. Small moments--such as a lingering arabesque by Mucuy Bolles--became uplifting haikus. In “Cry�(1971), a well-tempered Dwana Adiaha Smallwood forged boldly eloquent and economic gesture to sculpt that classic. And during “Revelations� (1960), more moments were illumined by performances--Linda Caceres and Glenn A. Sims in a rhapsodic swoon in the “Fix Me, Jesus� section, to name just one.

The dancing was also faultless in Jamison’s “Echo: Far From Home,� but it was a harder piece from which to gather an impression.

That a kind of story wanted to emerge seemed clear: It began with a portrait of a little girl in ballet costume and words about being excluded from a school, and ended with a young woman in a tutu picking up red shoes. But there was also the looming theme of the era of slave ships, which was evoked by stormy gray paintings lowered briefly into a scene or, on one occasion, made into a large, impressive transparency (the art was by Tom Feelings). Mostly, however, the characters whisked on and off or had tiny solos and duets that only hinted at moods--Daughter (in the tutu) explores; Mother is jittery or struts; Father struggles and worries; Mentor whirls his robes around. Unlike the paintings, these characters and relationships were drawn with vague strokes, barely hitting the canvas.

What emerged was a dreamlike atmosphere, emphasized with streaming light, smoke and studied pauses, all to a protean taped score by Robert Ruggieri. Like a reverie of interesting beginnings, “Echo� in the end remained an inchoate parade of unfinished thoughts.