http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/arts/dance/talking-about-love-demonstrating-violence.html 2014-12-05 00:55:46 Talking About Love, Demonstrating Violence Apart from half of the choreography, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s opening-night gala was inspiring, admirable, restorative, happy. === Apart from half of the choreography, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s opening-night gala at City Center on Wednesday was inspiring, admirable, restorative, happy. How much does it matter that two of the evening’s works were offensive? Around Ailey, such questions recur. Over all, the program, the start of the troupe’s five-week annual season at City Center, demonstrated that the Ailey organization was one of the dance world’s great success stories. If you can overlook the worse half of the repertory, no company in America has achieved more — or keeps on achieving more. Ailey died 25 years ago this week; on Wednesday, we were reminded that Ailey himself last week was accorded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s no surprise that his classic Joan H. Weill Both Robert Battle, the company’s artistic director, and Judith Jamison, his predecessor, talked to and about Mrs. Weill. Mr. Battle has a pleasant, jocose style of public address, but Ms Jamison’s is without equal, exciting in rhythm and phrasing, hilarious in off-the-cuff remarks, generous in spirit. Both Mrs. and Mr. Weill spoke, too; they regarded the Ailey organization as family, and their friendly, unpretentious, welcoming manner made us feel that we, too, belonged to the family. But, but, but. The evening’s speeches kept referring to the “Ailey legacy.” I would like someone to define what that legacy is and then tell us how it is in any way honored by the horrid choreography of the evening’s first two works: Hofesh Shechter’s “Uprising” (2006) and Mr. Battle’s “Unfold” (2005). Both are sensationalist, both have been brought into the Ailey repertory from elsewhere, and both are dreadful. “Uprising,” If “Uprising” has a message, it’s that male violence can be applied in various ways: chokehold, insurrection, workout. But really, it’s just a cheap-minded array of dull wow effects, largely devoid of serious dance impulse. Mr. Shechter is Israeli; “Uprising” was made in Britain, where he continues to create much of his work. In a speech, Mr. Battle spoke of Mr. Shechter’s originality, but nothing in “Uprising” was original. And its music, by Mr. Shechter and Vex’d, chiefly consists of the same echoing thud, repeated for minutes on end. This was followed by a speech by the actor Jeffrey Wright, who told us that dance is about a “love of life.” Oh, yeah? The joyless “Uprising” had contradicted this, and so did what followed: the depiction of a mutually abusive male-female relationship that is Mr. Battle’s If you understand the ecstatically erotic French words of the operatic aria that Mr. Battle takes as his accompaniment here — “Depuis le jour,” from Gustave Charpentier’s “Louise” — then you see that Mr. Battle means his duet as an exercise in pointed theatrical irony. The soprano sings of the delicious tremblings arising from her charming memories of living with her lover; the dancing shows us a couple forever locked in grimly flamboyant and aggressive behavior that brings them no joy. Is this really part of the Ailey legacy? To me, it looks wholly anti-Ailey. Usually, “Unfold” is accompanied by Leontyne Price’s slow, lush Dance in America today abounds in examples of inventive, ebullient African-American dance idioms — Memphis jookin and Detroit Jit are just two — but you won’t find the best aspects of this modernity in the Ailey repertory. Instead, the repertory inclines to ostentatious theatrics and flashy physicality devoid of artistic subtlety. Here’s hoping that this City Center season proves me wrong.