My review in the Chronicle:

“Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations” is a dance everyone should see at least once; the real miracle is that it’s stirring no matter how many times you see it. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve had the chance to see it again and again, thanks to Cal Performance’s annual presentation of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater -“Revelations” closes almost every Ailey program.

Wednesday the classic was as moving as it must have been when it premiered in 1960. With its hip-shaking spirituals, soul-baring reaches and burning understanding of the joyous struggle for transcendence, “Revelations” seems to fly in the face of that old lament that dance is an ephemeral art. But, of course, even the most timeless of dances is ephemeral – it lives only as long as it’s danced in the right spirit. And since Ailey’s death in 1989, the keeper of that spirit has been Judith Jamison.

The Ailey troupe’s latest run at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall comes on the heels of Jamison’s announcement that she’ll step down in 2011. It’s hard not to watch this engagement as a celebration of her leadership. Even a company as popular the world over as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater cannot live by “Revelations” alone, and for nearly two decades Jamison has fed her muscular, monumental dancers solid food for body, mind and spirit. In truth, choreographically, there have been far more scintillating slates than this first of three programs continuing through Sunday. But just try telling that to the sold-out house yipping with admiration for these superhuman movers’ every step in Camille A. Brown’s “The Groove to Nobody’s Business.” ”

Click here for full review.

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