"There's a lot of jumping and slapping and slamming," says veteran Ailey dancer Matthew Rushing (and newly named company rehearsal director). Some of Battle's directives included: "Always being on the prowl, feeling like you're predatory, always showing strength. At times he gave us images of almost being in a rave club, letting loose and going wild and not caring about technique or form — just throwing out energy."
"I feel like it's a thriller," Antonio Douthit says. "It's like being dropped in the Congo and all five of us are just trying to get out of there."
Rushing describes "a certain kind of emotional stamina" it demands from the dancers. "A lot of the times it feels like you are in a fight, you're fighting to get through, and then there's moments where you may be really pepped up, or really connected to the music, or connected with another dancer onstage, and then there's moments where you're just gagging.... From night to night the ballet means different things to you, and you feel different things within it."
"It's a test of everything," Jamar Roberts says. "It usually hurts for about three to four days afterwards."
"Yes and no," says Kirven Boyd. "The piece, obviously, is really physical. But I think a lot of it — like when we're slapping — looks way more physical than it is."
"Oh, no, it's physical!" Douthit responds. "When you slap me that hard?"
Boyd laughs. "I don't hit you that hard."
Change is difficult, and if you're a company with audiences as emotionally involved as the hordes who flock to see Alvin Ailey, you take a careful, creative approach when introducing a major transfer of artistic rule. Though it's still three months before Battle takes the reins of Ailey from the legendary Judith Jamison, his succession — directly and indirectly — is obviously a central factor on the company's 24-city tour, which includes 10 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
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