Aszure Barton's "Busk" Performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Choreographer Aszure Barton (b Canada) mystifying and startling work "Busk" had its Ailey premiere on Friday at the company's home in City Center.  "Busk" first premiered in ('09) is now being interpreted by the amazing Ailey dancers.  The Ailey Dance Theater is a superb pick for adapting "Busk" with the aid of the company's virtuoso versatility.  Busk is defined as street performance or improvisation.  The ominous dark staging and monochromatic black costumes of flowing, black monkish robes provide an eerie ambiance.  The dance begins with a solo dancer and a top hat turned upside down as if asking for donations.  The dancer performance is partly mime, partly spontaneous dance with overtly mendicant supplications.  The entertaining dancer is engaging and simultaneously reminiscent of street performers oftentimes intentionally ignored.  "Busk" is not to be ignored or pegged into any one style.  All dancers in their identical hooded, black robes make ghoulish faces & humorous formations.  The solos are rakish and stupefying, bordering on risqué and  risk taking.  A male soloist sheds his top and cavorts atop a multi-stepped prop.  A statuesque,  unmoving, unmasked figure remains situated on the steps.  The dancer takes a suspended leap from the top step softly landing in an acrobatic tumble on stage.  (A daring move that looks more like a Cirque de Soleil antic).  A female soloist also bares her top dancing with a minimalistic black sports bra.  She dances with equal bravado and muscularity.  The score varies from liturgical music to a contemporary mixed bag which seamlessly sorts itself out with ease.  Religious supplication, macabre humor and social contemporary on hooded victims of shootings splay in and out without making an overriding commitment to any major reference albeit an unpredictability and spontaneity.  Barton's "Busk" is a powerful and provocative work intended to be taken seriously with a large stipend of mirth.  The audience's rousing standing ovation is an indication that "Busk" is besotted with artistry and whimsy.  "Busk" is surprisingly fluid and swift and leaves you begging for more.  BRAVO!