Uptown Backs The Harlem Renaissance To City Center

 

We may be approaching the winter solstice, but there is definitely a breeze of springtime at the City Center Theater. It is provided by Uptown a new ballet by Matthew Rushing for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Uptown is true dance theater ensemble work, which chronicles the Harlem Renaissance.

The ballet opens with an old “Victrola” phonograph on stage in a single pool of light. The song "No More Auction Block" begins to play as a series of photographic images take us from slavery, though the northern migration, and to our final destination Harlem. This section is bravely void of dance becoming a visual overture.

We are introduced to Victor our narrator, masterfully portrayed by Amos J. Machanic, Jr., Victor takes us uptown guiding us through the streets, sights, and sounds of the Harlem of the 1920s. It was as if the images found in the sepia toned James Van Der Zee photographs that captured that era were suddenly released.

The second and third sections entitled "Welcome to Harlem" and "Rent Party" are homage to the effervescent and raucous mood of uptown street life. The period costumes, set design, music, and most importantly the movement and staging immediately transport us back to the heyday of Harlem. The audience is treated to glimpses of the swing dances era, with its buoyant and exciting lifts.

Uptown takes a decided turn from an entertaining depiction to thought provoking social commentary in "Great Minds." Mr. Rushing creates two contracting solos set to the words of W.E.B. DuBois (himself) and Zora Neale Hurston (performed by Ruby Dee). His choice here is significant, these were two individuals whose writings and philosophies were from diametrically opposing points of view. Dr. DuBois represented the established intelligencia and promoted the Negro bourgeoisie, while Ms. Hurston preserved the stories of “simply folk” that had lived in her hometown of Eatonville, FL. Performed by Vernard J. Gilmore and Briana Reed respectively, both dancers embodied the timeless eloquence of these two formidable personalities.

In subsequent sections we visit the Savoy Ballroom with its battling bands, meet Florence Mills, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, and lament with Langston Hughes. We “shuffle along” and delight in the backstage antics of a Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle production. Eventually our guide Victor takes us to the Cotton Club for an elegant white tie and tails finale.