Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s annual Cal Performances residency has been a high point of the Bay Area spring arts season for so long that the grandchildren of the Cal students who saw the company’s 1968 Wheeler Hall debut could be old enough to join Ailey’s ranks.
It’s the centerpiece of the Cal Performances Gala 2024, which includes a cocktail reception before the performance and a dinner afterward with a menu by Oakland’s award-winning Brown Sugar Kitchen chef Tanya Holland. The program also includes the Bay Area premieres of Alonzo King’s “Following the Subtle Current Upstream” and Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish’s “Me, Myself and You” .
“This isn’t about singing freely, but in full alignment with the choreography, which they’ve done so many times to recorded music. It’s tricky but it brings an even greater level of fire to the performance.” A respected choreographer himself, Battle expanded the company’s already dauntingly diverse repertoire, commissioning new pieces by hip-hop-steeped dancemakers Rennie Harris and Ronald K. Brown, acquiring works by Paul Taylor, Wayne McGregor, Ohad Naharin and appointing company dancer Jamar Roberts as AAADT’s first resident choreographer.