‘Hymn’ Puts Viewers in Step With Ailey’s Legacy

Dance has seldom been more seductively photographed than in “A Hymn for Alvin Ailey,” tonight on PBS’ “Dance in America” series.

Ailey died 10 years ago, and the hourlong telecast honors his memory with an adaptation of “Hymn,” a familiar vehicle for his company with choreography by current artistic director Judith Jamison and text (based on the dancers’ remembrances) by Anna Deavere Smith. Just as she did in some local performances of the work in past seasons, Smith speaks the text and interacts with the dancers--this time, however, in such picturesque locations as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Moreover, writer-director Orlando Bagwell expands the text of “Hymn” with on-screen interviews featuring a number of Ailey’s colleagues plus Ailey himself in vintage video clips. And the talk includes an explanation of why Ailey’s AIDS-related death was originally cloaked in euphemisms about “a rare blood disease.” (Not for the first time, survivor sensibilities overruled the truth.)

Despite all the documentary insights, dancing remains front and center: spectacular dancing photographed by Michael Chin with the most ideal camera placements, lighting and color saturation imaginable. It’s as if each frame had been designed to make the dancers as luminescent as stained glass without inhibiting their high-velocity athleticism. We may be listening to rambling digressions on everything from spiritual walking to beauty-in-ugliness, but what we see is a powerful testament to the survival of Ailey’s artistic vision.

*

* “A Hymn for Alvin Ailey,” tonight at 10 on KCET and KVCR. The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages). The Ailey company also appears March 3-7, Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 365-3500.