Silent soliloquy
I saw Alvin Ailey ADT tonight. I’ve been wanting to see them ever since Boston. I loved the acts that matched the pictures above in form and in content. The human body is matchless. As for the rest of the acts: I appreciate the athleticism, the incredible expression possible to the human body, and the effects only possible in a group. But it doesn’t help when the entire last third is based on psalms, old gospels, and the religious south.
The act that surprised me was Sinner Man. With red flames on the wall and green light from above, the three guilty men looked like monsters in irons. Watching them enter I felt a hardening and sinking inside: this is what men do to each other, what men do to themselves. Each had his turn reacting to his fate, and leapt into dance. Terror graded to triumph in silent soliloquy, and in a tour de force each showcased his talents in floating leaps and mind-boggling spins, indominable spirits drinking in freedom again. In moments the air of doom had turned to mockery, for only a farce is possible when the devil relies on volunteers.
I noticed I laughed only after the fact. In relief and affirmation and complete happiness. There is no finer tangible thing than a human body coupled with an unharnessed human spirit. It knocks my socks off every time.
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