Repeatedly, they find each other, hooking elbows on occasion, and part ways. And so it goes. “Me, Myself and You” is a slight work, but not just because it’s so brief; instead of moving, it’s maudlin. When Gilmer slips away for good, the music ends and Dartey ponders her fate in silence.
Thursday also saw a new production of “Solo” by Hans van Manen that made the speed and virtuosity of Chalvar Monteiro, Yannick Lebrun and Patrick Coker priorities. Each were dashing enough, but as for the dance? Set to Bach, it’s packed with cloying gestures — the worst is a shrug — whimsically meant to break the fourth wall.
Ailey’s “Survivors,” featuring Jacquelin Harris and Vernard J. Gilmore as Nelson and Winnie Mandela, was more soulful in its penetrating look at the anguish of injustice. Dancing to Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, they each held their spines with unsentimental power, and Harris, pouring her grief into potent tilts and contractions, was a force.
With each passing season, Harris becomes more expansive, more versatile, more luminous. On Friday, in Kyle Abraham’s “Are You in Your Feelings,” a love letter to Black culture and music set to soul, hip-hop and R&B, she shimmered, displaying a kind of pedestrian virtuosity in which every ounce of her tiny, eloquent body was the music.
“Revelations,” Ailey’s 1960 classic, closed both programs with some fine performances, including Akua Noni Parker, the former company member returning as a special guest opposite (the ageless!) Lebrun in “Fix Me, Jesus.” Monteiro’s “I Wanna Be Ready” held deep pockets of mystery and pain. And in “Sinner Man,” Isaiah Day, who, remarkably, is in his final year at Juilliard, rushed across the stage with glittering vehemence. Once you notice him, he’s hard to unsee: This is a dancer, somewhere between a boy and a man, and he seems headed for glory.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Through Dec. 31 at New York City Center in Manhattan; nycitycenter.org.
