Renee Robinson: Black History Month in Dance, 2021

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Feb 23

Black History Month in Dance 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132. In December 2012, it was my privilege to write the “New York Times” review of Renée Robinson’s farewell performance as a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. By that time, she had been a professional dancer for more than thirty years; few in the audience - certainly not I - could remember the Ailey repertory before her. She herself had become the only member of the company who had danced for Ailey himself. Many flowers were thrown, but only two bouquets were formally presented onstage: by Robert Battle, artistic director of the Ailey company, and by Judith Jamison, Battle’s predecessor (and Ailey’s successor) as artistic director.

What I can never forget is that she left the company that night in the kind of form that burns itself on the memory - the way she had danced all along. I remember how in “Night Creature” she moved her hips in a figure-of-eight motion that sculpted its arcs in space; I remember above all how she took one overhead lift, one leg raised high like a beacon, her back arched in the kind of firm, proud arc that few dancers of any age sustain; I remember the line of her jaw, the brightness of her smile, the shapes she cut in the air in jumps. In the finale of the final “Revelations”, her sheer glee was exhilarating even by “Revelations” standards. (These photographs by my old “New York Times” colleague Andrea Mohin happily confirm those memories.)

The annual five-week Ailey season at New York City Center is one of the great fixtures of the New York calendar - or was until December 2020. I’ve often compared it to seasons by the Bolshoi Ballet: you watch fabulous performers transcend repertory less than half of which is worthy of them and some of which is trash - performers who are never demeaned by their material and whose ardour brings glory on all they do. Give them material worthy of their calibre and they burn all the brighter.

Over the years I watched her, Robinson’s dancing was never less than incandescent. On the night of her farewell to City Center, I was aware that most people in the audience were hailing her as a vital part of their lives. There are other Ailey dancers of whom much the same can be said: their place in successive Ailey seasons makes them bright and constant stars in the theatrical firmament.

Monday 22 February