Alvin Ailey Still Rocks

To say Coco owns a lot of stuff is like saying Starbucks is just a small coffee shop...it's a real understatement. Having helped move said stuff two times this year alone (up and down 2-3 flights of stairs!), I decided that for her birthday, instead of buying her something I would just end up having to move again, I would take her to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT).

I first saw the Alvin Ailey dancers perform when I was a little girl, and let me tell you it ruined me for all other ballets. It was just so vibrant...the colors, the textures, the music....it was like soul candy. It was the way that they moved, the strength and grace of beautiful brown people of all hues, each with more muscles tone in one leg than I have in my entire body. They were magical, the women with their long silky skirts that seemed as much an extension of themselves as their hair and the men who were more communicative and expressive in their movements than most men are with a full range of vocabulary. I remember hearing Wade in the Water and watching the two huge bolts of blue silk undulating across the stage, ribbons of ocean baptising the dancers dressed in white and carrying those southern umbrellas. And the yellow church fans of the women gossiping. I never knew you could say so much without saying a word.

Every few years, when I am lucky enough to be in the right city at the right time, I get to see it all again. This year is the 50th anniversary. As such, when we were seated, instead of dancing right away they showed a short documentary about the company. Alvin Ailey had been dancing and choreographing for several years before he and a group of young, black, modern dancers performed together as the AAADT for the first time in New York in 1958. Ailey was born in Texas and his southern roots are reflected in the dances he choreographed. He took a very specific set of black experiences and immortalized them in his dances, which are truly like moving canvasses....just rich and artfully designed. The most famous piece Alvin Ailey every choreographed was Revelations.....and let me tell, even after seeing it 4 or 5 times, I can and will most likely totally pay to see it again and again. It just speaks to me. He went on to open a school in New York where young people of all different backgrounds are taught the fundamentals of dance. In 1989 when he became ill, Judith Jamison, one of the most amazing dancers ever to exist on this earth, took over and has been head artistic director ever since.


Before heading to the Paramount, I spent my morning at church. Yes, I made the hike and spent a very long time on the bus, but it was worth it. The message was titled, Enlightenment, Then Laundry....and it was all about the idea of having that Aha! moment. That split second when everything becomes clear. When you see your purpose. When you understand God and know that you, while still retaining your individual identity, are a part of something greater and all encompassing. I've had this moment before. In fact, I could sum up my entire spiritual practice as trying to get back to or move forward into this moment again. That absolute clarity of purpose, vision...the understanding or what people glibly refer to as enlightenment.

This isn't something that always happens at church, in fact it has more often than not occurred in much less traditional venues. Most of what happens in church is me being A.D.D. and having monkey mind. I catch about 75% of what is going on and the rest of me is thinking. "God I love those shoes, I wonder where she got them. It smells like cinnamon in here. I should make a dental appointment." While in Japan with a bunch of high school students, we participated in some Zen meditation. It was great, not because I actually achieved a quiet mind, but because with one glance from the Buddhist monk, the kids were quiet-oh to have that kind of power! I digress.

A few of my kids had actually been practicing meditation for a while. One of them had even gotten so good at it, that he had gained control over his A. D. D. and stopped having to take medication. He often tried to get me to quiet my thoughts. He'd hand me his i-pod and play rain for me and try to get me to find peace, but half way through when I had really let my thoughts drift away, he'd just turn to me and laugh. "I can see you thinking," he'd say. "Maybe we'll try again tomorrow". Then I'd always feel like such a phony and we'd try again and it would be the same. I guess sometimes the message comes to different people in different ways, but the commonality and the main point of the sermon on Sunday was that regardless of how it comes to you, or when or why, given our human nature, it is normal for it to be a flash and not to be something sustainable. Hence the laundry after enlightenment....we work before and after. She talked about how sometimes people get depressed because they can't sustain joy and clarity, but that it's okay. That's just how we're built. The cool part is that we can fall into grace from time to time and in the meantime we have other things to occupy our time.

Halfway through Alvin Ailey, I slipped into one of those moments. I don't know if it was the music or the colors or the beauty of the moment or that rich silent hush that settles into an audience when the lights go down and they're waiting for something to happen, but whatever it was I was having a spiritual experience. Then the white people started clapping off beat and just like that it was gone. I mean it's a ballet you don't have to clap in the middle, you can wait until they're doing their little choreographed bows an what not. Yeah, I know the music is hella good and there are times when you gotta sway and tap your feet, but if you don't know when to clap and can't keep a beat, then there is no need for you to detract from the beauty of the moment by trying. And Jesus how can so many people be so off beat???It boggles the mind. But even with the irritation, it was still a fantastic performance and one I hope to see again. Even in my post enlightened irritation, I could still feel the remnants of grace. Thanks for that Universe.