Marsalis’ Jazz Score Drives Jamison’s ‘Sweet Release’

It’s no secret that jazzman Wynton Marsalis is fast emerging as the dance composer of the decade. Indeed, had the current American Ballet Theatre season come off as planned, Southland audiences would have seen the world premiere of a full-evening Marsalis project just last weekend. (That project has been postponed but not canceled, company sources report.)

The local premiere of Judith Jamison’s “Sweet Release” on the Thursday program by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre confirmed anew the mastery of rhythm, mood, dramatic contrast and instrumental texture that Marsalis brings to his dance collaborations. Even canned and pumped through the Wiltern Theatre sound system, his score seemed as alive and spontaneous as the dancing.

As for Jamison, her overlong comic fable about lovers bedeviled by a “Snake in the Grass” (that’s the name of the character) fell way below what Garth Fagan achieved with Marsalis in “Griot New York,” but also rose way above what Peter Martins inflicted on Marsalis in “Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements” for New York City Ballet.

Most of all, “Sweet Release” seemed a pretext for Matthew Rushing to be sublimely slinky as that snake--and for Karine Plantadit-Bageot and Uri Sands to dance hot, technically complex solos and duets in their underwear. They did so superbly and managed to look almost as impressive in the fancy clothes that Greg Barnes designed for the work’s central church sequences. In addition, Don Bellamy danced powerfully as the Minister, but nothing and nobody outclassed the score.

Music also proved the main event in Lar Lubovitch’s 1990 “Fandango” (on the Wednesday program), with two dancers hurling themselves against the relentless repetitions of Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” in a 17-minute test of stamina and other survival skills.

Members of Lubovitch’s own company haven’t always passed the test effortlessly, and all the grueling, nonstop gymnastics left Ailey veteran Leonard Meek looking dangerously winded. But Elizabeth Roxas stayed supremely comfortable executing the contorted body sculpture and, indeed, made all the hair-lashing and torso-stroking a plausible facsimile for passion--the ultimate test in this newly acquired vehicle.

Familiar or previously reviewed repertory completed the Wednesday and Thursday programs.

* The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs different mixed bills today at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd. $13-$40. (310) 825-2101.