DANCE REVIEW : Ailey Co. in ‘From the Mountains of Taubalu’

A sanctimonious hodgepodge of black dance’s greatest hits, Rovan Deon’s solo “From the Mountains of Taubalu” looked not merely familiar but secondhand at its local premiere, Sunday in the Wiltern Theatre, on the final program of the Alvin Ailey company’s six-day season.

Remember the long skirt vehemently flung away, the scrubbing-the-floor mime and other vintage Ailey motifs forever associated with Judith Jamison? They were all here (and more), incoherently reassembled to pop songs by the Winans about Christian faith and danced to blazes by the resident company dynamo, Marilyn Banks.

Watching Banks put over this high-energy trifle (Deon’s professional choreographic debut) had a fascination akin to hearing, say, Vladimir Horowitz play Sousa--a case of interpretation as creative act. And since Ailey so often gambles on young choreographers, you have to expect Deons from time to time, along with the Donald Byrds and Ulysses Doves.

Along with “Masekela Langage” and “Revelations” from previously reviewed programs, the Sunday performance (titled “In the Black Tradition”) included a spotty performance of Ailey’s “Blues Suite.”

Ailey has profound things to share here about the origins of black style in America, but only Dereque Whiturs consistently had all the technique and intensity needed. The rest of the dancers saved themselves for Major Moments: no way to treat a 31-year-old masterwork.