In Judith Jamison’s Reminiscin’ (2005), some familiar Ailey characters drop in on their local bar. Uppity women sass one another and swish their fannies at macho men, couples walk off in a huff after embracing passionately. They all dance to popular songs by great women vocalists (Sarah, Ella, Nina). I couldn’t see any particular reason for this piece except that it allowed the dancers a more revved-up movement idiom than its prototype, Ailey’s 1958 Blues Suite.
It did provide the only slow, reflective, and truly sexy moments of the evening, a duet for Alicia Graf and Jamar Roberts. A few moments later, Roberts did another passionate duet, with Antonio Douthit. This too was a nod to Ailey, who made same-sex duets as early as The River (1970), and whose character dances always made room for non-conformists.
Related:
Trailing Ailey, Finding a voice, Drama dance, More 
- Trailing Ailey
Neither the Ailey company nor The Groove ’s choreographer, Camille A. Brown, acknowledged these roots.
- Finding a voice
Closer inspection, however, shows a choreographer making a series of perplexing musical choices that don’t always serve him well.
- Drama dance
Half a century ago something known as dance drama occupied a large part of the modern-dance repertory.
- Converging streams
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater offered two milestones in the development of contemporary dance during its annual Celebrity Series visit to the Wang Theatre last week.
- Sunday school
Ronald K. Brown’s flamboyant choreography comes with a big serving of spirituality.
- Dancing across the city
The ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, with its sprung wood dance floor and wrap-around windows framing the harbor, is positioned to become Boston dance’s most significant venue.
- Adventurous demos
With a variety of scrims, opaque panels, and lighting tricks, the seven dancers became the source for a dreamy succession of images by new-media artist Jonathan Bachrach.
- Celebrating
This year’s Tapestry Dance Champion Award went not to a dancer but to a devoted musical collaborator, Paul Arslanian.
- Combat and rain
Taiwanese choreographer Nai-Ni Chen danced with Cloud Gate Dance Theater before moving to New York in 1982, and her work, like theirs, is a suave amalgam of traditional Chinese elements and modern dance.
- A look back
Fusionworks Dance Company finishes its 20th season with four pieces that draw on repertory and a fifth that is a brand-new improvisation.
- The look of love
Following the acclaim given to Boston-based choreographer Gianni Di Marco’s short ballet Schéhérazade in 2005, Festival Ballet’s artistic director Mihailo Djuric commissioned Di Marco to create another new ballet for the company.
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Topics:
Dance
, Entertainment, Dance, Performing Arts, More
, Entertainment, Dance, Performing Arts, Modern Dance, Alvin Ailey, Jamar Roberts, Alicia Graf, Hans van Manen, Dudley Williams, Josephine Baker, Less
