Auditorium Theatre 2018-19 Issue 3 Alvin Ailey

10 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2018-19 - March 6 - March 30, 2019 We Live the History: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater made its first appearance at the Auditorium in 1969, just over 10 years after the company was established. Ailey has achieved great things on the Auditorium’s landmark stage, and the theatre is honored to be the company’s Chicago home. Explore some highlights of Ailey's performances at the Auditorium throughout the decades! Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Auditorium Throughout The Decades A flyer from Ailey’s 1974 engagement at the Auditorium Theatre. 1969 The company’s first performance at the Auditorium Theatre, part of the Auditorium Theatre Council’s Lively Arts Series, included Talley Beatty’s Toccata and The Black Belt , Lucas Hoving’s Icarus , and Ailey’s Quintet and Revelations . At the time, the company consisted of just over 15 dancers, including Judith Jamison. Tickets ranged from $1-$5. “When the three penitents in ‘Sinner Man’ split for cover at a dead run last night, the Auditorium theater’s sizeable audience went wild,” wrote critic Thomas Willis in his Chicago Tribune review. “Elsewhere in the concluding ‘Revelations,’ the statuesque Judith Jamison was delightful as a wader in streamer waters and Consuelo Atlas and George Faison provided rare lyric moments in ‘Fix Me, Jesus.’” 1974 At the time known as “The Alvin Ailey City Center Dance Theater,” the company returned to the Auditorium many times throughout the decade. In that decade, they performed pieces that would go on to become Ailey classics, such as Love Songs, Cry, The Lark Ascending , and, of course, Revelations . The company also presented works by Katherine Dunham, Lar Lubovitch, Talley Beatty, and George Faison, among many others. “One was completely awed by the phenomenal prowess of the various dancers as they breathtakingly provided an interpretive intensity that was incredible and grand,” wrote entertainment writer Earl Calloway in his review of the company's 1974 engagement for the Chicago Defender. 1984 The company celebrated its 25 th anniversary season at the Auditorium Theatre in 1984, with programs that included Talley Beatty’s Stack-Up (revived in 2017), Ulysses Dove’s Nightshade , and Billy Wilson’s Concerto in F . Revelations again brought the house down — Sid Smith, the Chicago Tribune’s dance critic, noted that Revelations is “one of the few concert dances that has its own choreographed encore, largely because it usually needs one, as it did Sunday afternoon.” “What has been our major contribution to the whole dance scene? I believe it’s in the unparalleled repertory of modern dance works, something I wanted to see happen when I starting out myself,” Ailey told Smith in an interview that reflected on the company’s first 25 years ahead of the engagement at the Auditorium. “I wanted to see modern dance history preserved, the way classical ballet preserves its heritage. But it didn’t happen, so I decided to try to do it myself.” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Talley Beatty’s Stack-Up . PAUL KOLNIK