UMS Concert Program, March 11, 1981: International Presentations Of Music & Dance -- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Season: 102nd
Concert: Forty-eighth
Power Center For The Performing Arts Ann Arbor, Michigan

_itetftatipnal Presentations
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
ALVIN AILEY, Artistic Director Mary Barnett, Associate Artistic Director
Sarita Allen Carl Bailey Marilyn Banks Barbara Pouncie Beckles April Berry Roman Brooks Kevin Brown Ronald Brown Alistair Butler Debora Chase On leave of absence
Masazumi Chaya Daniel Clark Gary DeLoatch Patricia Dingle Neisha Folkes Ralph Glenmore Judith Jamison Mari Kajiwara Keith McDaniel Deborah Manning Sharrell Mesh
Michihiko Oka Nathaniel Orr Stanley Perryman Danita Ridout Maxine Sherman Linda Spriggs Gregory Stewart Dudley Williams Donna Wood Sara Yarborough
Wednesday Evening, March 11, 1981, at 8:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Alvin Ailey Company has come a long way since its 1958 debut with seven dancers at New York's 92nd Street YW-YMHA. As early as 1962 the Company appeared in the Far East, Australia, and London, and in 1970 captured first prize in the International Dance Festival in Paris. Also in 1970 the Company created a sensation on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour to the Soviet Union, performing in towns where Western dancers had never been seen before. Subsequent tours have taken the dancers to Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, Greece, Japan, Hon Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Africa--all with seasons sold out before they began. The Company now numbers 30 dancers, with a repertory ensemble company, a workshop, a well-established school, and a repertoire that boasts such Ailey classics as Revelations and Blues Suite, as well as 50 ballets by over 30 major choreographers.
The Ailey Company first performed in Ann Arbor in 1969; this is the ensemble's seventh visit to the city for a total of 17 performances. The three concerts this week comprise a residency under the Dance Touring Program, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts ard the Michigan Council for the Arts.
102nd Season -Forty-eighth Concert Tenth Annual Choice Series
NIGHT CREATURE
(First performance, April 1975)
Choreography: Alvin Ailey
Music: Duke Ellington ("Night Creature")
Costumes: Jane Greenwood
Lighting: Chenault Spence
"Night creatures, unlike stars, do not come out at night--they come on, each thinking that before the night is out he or she will be the star."
--Duke Ellington
First Movement Maxine Sherman Gary DeLoatch
Linda Spriggs April Berry Keith McDaniel Carl Bailey
Danita Ridout Barbara Pouncie Beckles Daniel Clark Kevin Brown
Patricia Dingle Sharrell Mesh Stanley Perryman Ronald Brown
Second Movement
Maxine Sherman Dudley Williams and The Company
Third Movement
Maxine Sherman Gary DeLoatch and The Company
In 1955, Duke Ellington was commissioned to write a piece to be played by the Symphony of the Air in concert with his orchestra. Night Creature was the outcome, and it was subsequently performed not only by the Symphony of the Air, but also by the symphonies of Buffalo, Detroit, and New Haven, as well as by the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. In 1963. the first and second movements were recorded with the Stockholm Symphony, and the third movement with the Paris Symphony.
Originally commissioned by Herman Krawitz and Robert Weiner.
flv arrangement with Tempo Music, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.
TREADING
(First performance, February 1979)
Choreography: Elisa Monte
Music: Steve Reich
Costumes: Marisol
Lighting: Beverly Eammons
Danita Ridout Keith McDaniel
Elisa Monte is a member of the Martha Graham Dar.ce Company where she has danced many leading roles, including a part especially created for her by Miss Graham. She began her career under the guidance of Agnes DeMille and has appeared with Pilobolus Dance Theater, The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, as well as appearing throughout Great Britain in her own duet program, entitled "Singles and Doubles." Miss Monte will be appearing with her Company in June in the New York Dance Umbrella season at New York City Center.
"Treading" was made possible in part by a grant from New York State Council on the Arts.
INTERMISSION
THE RIVER
Choreography: Alvin Ailey
Original Score: Duke Ellington ("The River")
Costumes: Frank Thompson
Lighting: Nicola Cernovitch
". . . of birth ... of the well-spring of life ... of reaffirmation ... of the heavenly anticipation of rebirth . . ."
--Duke Ellington
Spring
Alistair Butler
April Berry, Debora Chase, Patricia Dingle, Neisha Folkes
Deborah Manning, Sharrell Mesh, Barbara Pouncie Beckles, Danita Ridout
Carl Bailey, Ronald Brown, Kevin Brown, Daniel Clark
Ralph Glenmore, Gregory Stewart, Nathaniel Orr
Meander Kevin Brown April Berry Carl Bailey
Giggling Rapids Linda Spriggs Masazumi Chaya
Lake Sara Yarborough Roman Brooks
Vortex Linda Spriggs
Falls Gary DeLoatch Roman Brooks Kevin Brown Stanley Perryman
Riba (Mainstream) Michihiko Oka
April Berry, Debora Chase, Patricia Dingle, Neisha Folkes
Deborah Manning, Sharrell Mesh, Barbara Pouncie Beckles, Danita Ridout
Carl Bailey, Ronald Brown, Kevin Brown, Daniel Clark
Ralph Glenmore, Gregory Stewart, Nathaniel Orr
Twin Cities Alistair Butler Sara Yarborough
April Berry, Debora Chase, Patricia Dingle, Neisha Folkes
Deborah Manning, Sharrell Mesh, Barbara Pouncie Beckles, Danita Ridout
Carl Bailey, Ronald Brown, Kevin Brown, Daniel Clark
Ralph Glenmore, Gregory Stewart, Nathaniel Orr
Originally commissioned by American Ballet Theatre and performed in 1970, The River represented the major collaboration between Duke Ellington and Alvin Ailey, although Ailey had choreographed part of My People, the show Ellington produced in Chicago seven years earlier. The original idea behind the music was to depict the rise and course of a river from source to sea, with some attention necessarily given to events on either bank. Ellington char?acteristically improvised on this idea, translating it into an allegory on birth, life, and rebirth.
INTERMISSION
REVELATIONS (First performance, January 1960)
Choreography: Alvin Ailey
Music: Traditional
Decor and Costumes: Ves Harper
Lighting: Nicola Cernovitch
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine."
This suite explores motivations and emotions of American Negro religious music which, like its heir the blues, takes many forms--true spirituals with their sustained melodies, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues--songs of trouble, of love, of deliverance.
"Spirituals sing of woe triumphantly, knowing well that all rivers will be crossed and the Promised land is just beyond the stream. The Spirituals ask no pity for their words ride on the strongest of melodies, the melody of faith. That is why there is joy in their singing, peace in their music, and
strength in their soul."
--Langston Hughes
Pilgrim of Sorrow
1 Been Buked..........................................The Company
(Arranged by Hall Johnson)
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel............Keith McDaniel, Debora Chase,
(Arranged by James Miller) NEISHA FOLKES
Fix Me Jesus.............................Sarita Allen, Michihiko Oka
(Arranged by Hall Johnson)
Take Me To The Water
Processional.........................Danita Ridout, Ralph Glenmore,
Roman Brooks, Stanley Perryman
Wading in the Water........Sharrell Mesh, Alistair Butler, April Berry
I Want to be Ready.................................Dudley Williams
(Arranged by James Miller)
Move, Members, Move
Sinner Man................Gary DeLoatch, Carl Bailey, Ronald Brown
The Day is Past and Gone................................The Company
You May Run On.......................................The Company
(Arranged by Brother John Sellers and Howard Roberts)
Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham....................The Company
(All arrangements by Howard Roberts unless otherwise noted.)