A guest review by dance critic Laura Bleiberg:
For its diehard fans, a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (at Segerstrom Hall through Sunday) is a spiritual experience, with Ailey’s masterpiece “Revelations” the defining “prayer” of every show.
I can’t say I fall into that camp. But as “Revelations” began Tuesday night, the words of one particular spiritual — “There is trouble all over this world” — and the dancers’ emotional depictions of human frailty and burden did cause a shiver. In these times, who wouldn’t agree with that?
This Costa Mesa engagement comes during a significant transition period. Ailey artistic director Judith Jamison, one of the late choreographer’s leading muses and then his hand-picked successor, stepped down last July. She had been one of the dance field’s most successful directors. In partnership with executive director Sharon Luckman, she lifted the troupe to financial security, gave it a multi-million home in midtown Manhattan and raised the dancers’ artistic standards to new heights.
Classical Life 