Ailey 2 contemporary dance company head to Bradford and Hull this month

The New York based company is touring the UK and coming to Bradford in a couple of weeks for just two nights before heading to Hull for a couple of performances.

Ailey 2, the second, younger company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is the outfit that takes the company’s name across the globe, converting many with these missionary journeys.

The religious language is entirely apt; you can’t watch Revelations, the company’s signature piece which ends every show, and not be convinced of the existence of something divine. It is surely one of the great works of art in human history.

The woman at the helm of the young Ailey 2 company in its 50th year is Francesca Harper.

“What’s so exciting about Ailey 2 is that we are catching the enthusiasm and raw talent of the dancers at the beginning of their careers” she says. “There’s such a rich history to the company of fostering and nourishing young artists. They are so talented and Ailey 2 gives them the opportunity for that talent to flourish.”

The programme for 12 dancers features four works – excerpts from Harper’s Freedom Series and William Forsythe’s Enemy in the Figure along with Robert Battle’s The Hunt and Alvin Ailey’s Revelations which is a signature work of all the Ailey companies.

I once travelled to New York to watch the company on home turf, in Brooklyn and asked if they’d ever consider not finishing a show with Revelations. ‘If we wanted to cause a riot,’ was the obvious answer.

“Revelations is Mr Ailey’s most famous work and it’s a masterpiece,” says Harper. “It reflects the cultural heritage of the African American community and Mr Ailey’s blood memories. It embodies this reverent grace and spiritual elation.”

Danced to a selection of African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues, it explores a place of deep grief but also of joy and to call it transcendent might sound like, but I guarantee is not, hyperbole. For this latest tour, Ailey 2 has also adapted The Hunt, a piece by the main company artistic director Robert Battle. Originally created for male dancers, Harper has turned that on its head.

“I asked Robert if we could have women perform in it as well so we are the first company within the Ailey organisation to have The Hunt performed by an all-female cast,” says Harper.

“It’s a very athletic work and is set to really powerful music by French percussion band Les Tambours du Bronx. Robert was inspired by modern sports and the rituals of gladiators so it has this very ominous and threatening energy. For the women to be as ferocious and athletic as the men is really exciting and an important statement.”

Harper also brings her own stamp to the programme in the shape of William Forsythe’s Enemy in the Figure. From 1991 to 1999, she was a dancer in Forsythe’s hugely influential Ballett Frankfurt, rising to principal for the last five years. Harper’s own work, Freedom Series, was inspired by her taking up the post of Ailey 2 artistic director and her emotional responses to returning to the Alvin Ailey family – she trained at The Ailey School where her mother Denise Jefferson was director.

“This is my home, it has always had that familial feeling,” says Harper who has also choreographed for Broadway shows and was the ballet consultant for the film Black Swan. “It grounded me to see all of these people of colour and diverse representation living their dreams, following their passions and feeling empowered. And to see them transform and develop and flourish. Over the years I feel so fortunate to have witnessed that and for it to have been an integral part of my development. When I’m back here I feel the power that is in that kind of cyclical journey.”

And when the company is back here in the UK, this autumn for the first time in a decade, you don’t want to miss that serious power.

Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, October 17 and 18. Hull New Theatre, October 20, 21.