{"id":1212,"date":"2021-12-10T15:35:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T16:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2025-04-08T15:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:32:53","slug":"robert-battle-at-full-throttle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/10\/robert-battle-at-full-throttle\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Battle at Full Throttle"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re enjoying the easygoing, joke-telling manner of Robert Battle as the welcoming emcee of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, you might not realize there is a ferocious choreographer underneath all that charm. To celebrate his 10 years as artistic director, at New York City Center on Tuesday night the company presented seven works Battle\u2019s created over the last 22 years. Each one held bold surprises\u2014even for those of us familiar with his work.<\/p>\n

At the Dance Magazine Awards the previous night<\/a>, Judith Jamison, in presenting the award to Battle, said, \u201cI love watching Robert\u2019s bravery.\u201d I think she meant both his bravery as a choreographer and as an artistic director. As the latter, he has expanded the Ailey repertory with so many interesting choices\u2014Aszure Barton, Wayne McGregor, Johan Inger and Kyle Abraham\u2014that we tend to forget about Battle himself as a choreographer.<\/p>\n

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Kanji Segawa in Robert Battle’s Takademe<\/em>. Photo by James R. Brantley, Courtesy AAADT<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Well, the program at City Center reminded us in a big way. Robert Battle is a choreographer of masterful restraint and sudden explosiveness. He is a choreographer who has definite musical tastes and finds a different, original movement vocabulary for each of those music choices.<\/p>\n

With a disciplined sense of suspense, he makes us wait for the big moment. In Mass<\/em> (2004), a devotional piece of skittering, swirling and vibrating and a modernist sense of design, the 16 dancers sometimes lock into off-kilter positions of stillness. And then a burst of momentum pushes these monklike figures across the stage in an agitated, unstoppable herd. In his portion of Love Stories<\/em> (2004, originally a triptych with contributions from Judith Jamison and Rennie Harris), we crave to be carried on a high by Stevie Wonder\u2019s songs, but Battle reins the dancers in with strict unison until the very end, when he unleashes a torrent of wild revelry.<\/p>\n

In Unfold<\/em> (2007), the extreme attenuation for the woman\u2014in this case a ravishingly arching Jacqueline Green\u2014is sustained throughout this short work to the operatic voice of Leontyne Price. Green\u2019s partner, Jeroboam Bozeman, seems like a lost soul clinging to his memories. With a slow d\u00e9velopp\u00e9 to the side, toes pointing upward, Green hits the high note just when Price does. It\u2019s the kind of satisfying convergence that Battle is careful not to overuse.<\/p>\n

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Jacqueline Green and Jeroboam Bozeman in Robert Battle’s Unfold<\/em>. Photo by Paul Kolnik, Courtes<\/small>y AAADT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s emotional range went from the desperation of In\/Side<\/em> (2008)\u2014which finds Yannick Lebrun staggering and spiraling to Nina Simone singing \u201cwith your kiss life begins\u201d\u2014to the giddiness of Ella<\/em> (2008), in which two dancers (Renaldo Maurice and Patrick Coker) physicalize Ella Fitzgerald\u2019s speedy scatting that ricochets between popular tunes of the 50s and earlier.<\/p>\n

The work that premiered this season, For Four,<\/em> laced its full-bodied jazz moves with cha\u00een\u00e9 turns and cabrioles, and somehow it all fit into the robust Wynton Marsalis score. The projection of an American flag onto one dancer seemed to suddenly curtail the dancers\u2019 freedom and make them feel trapped.<\/p>\n

Takademe<\/em> (1999) never fails to excite. With crackling energy, Kanji Segawa mirrors Sheila Chandra\u2019s staccato stutterings, deep exhalations and vocal spurts. A brief, enchanting masterwork, Takademe<\/em> is where language, voice and movement mingle\u2014at top speed and intricacy.<\/p>\n

In his opening speech to this program honoring him, Battle graciously pointed out that David Parsons gave him his first chance to choreograph, and he, Battle, has given Jamar Roberts<\/a> his first chance. And so the chain of extraordinary artistry continues.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Robert Battle at Full Throttle<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re enjoying the easygoing, joke-telling manner of Robert Battle as the welcoming emcee of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, you might not realize there is a ferocious choreographer underneath all that charm. To celebrate his 10 years as… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1217,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions\/1217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}