Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Renee Robinson in Carmen de Lavallade’s Sweet Bitter Love

Repertory

Sweet Bitter Love

WORLD PREMIERE

New York City Center, 2000

ASSISTANT TO CHOREOGRAPHER

Dudley Williams

MUSIC

“Until It’s Time for You to Go” (Buffy St. Marie) sung by Roberta Flack, “For All We Know” (Sam M. Lewis & Fred Coots) sung by Donny Hathaway, “Sweet Bitter Love” (Van McCoy, Blackwood, BMI) sung by Roberta Flack

COSTUMES

Geoffrey Holder

LIGHTING

Chenault Spence

RUN TIME

16 Minutes

In a bittersweet moment, two lovers at a crossroads reveal their passion. This poetic and poignant narrative by modern dance icon Carmen de Lavallade is infused with the classic and moving ballads of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway.  

Sweet Bitter Love was originally a solo that de Lavallade choreographed for herself after being inspired by Roberta Flack's performance of her song. "I decided to add the lover into the duet that I was creating for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater so we would have both the male and female points of view," de Lavallade explained. "I was also motivated by this good old English film Brief Encounter about a lady and a doctor who have this amazing spiritual connection while riding on a train. They realize they must break it up even though they would have been happy together because they matched so intensely. That's what makes it so sad and heartbreaking. They found each other too late in their respective lives. That was the kind of feeling I wanted to give the dancers so that they would then be able to work their individual stories into the ballet. They each have to tell their own story."

 

They don’t make love duets like this anymore. Or rather, it takes a dancer, actor, and choreographer of Carmen de Lavallade's gifts and experience to create a bare-bones image onstage and fill it with unabashed emotion.

Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times