Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:

• Dance: Modern, Ballet, Contemporary
• Music: Blues, Jazz, Spirituals
• American Studies
• African American & African Studies
• Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
• Education: Dance, Community, Youth

Dive deeper with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the artform, and the artistic process.
 

Our Story | AILEY website

Lester Horton biography

"Alvin Ailey: A Titan of Dance, Cultural Change, and Champion of Inclusivity"—Black History Month Magazine 2025 U.K.

Video: "Revelations - Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater"

Video: "The life of Alvin Ailey"

Turnham, Stephanie. "Alvin Ailey and the southern black experience as portrayed in “Blues Suite” and “Revelations." PhD dissertation, Baylor University, 2002. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (1411666).

Brown, Selena. "Crafting Americana and Choreographing Legacy: The Multicultural Approach of Lester Horton." PhD dissertation, Brown University, 2022. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (31876316).

Alvin Ailey Blog: "Remembering Judith Jamison" 

Alvin Ailey Blog: "Announcing Our Next Artistic Director: Meet Alicia Graf Mack"

"Alicia Graf Mack on Honoring the Past and Future of Dance" [Audio podcast episode] In PBS American Masters: Creative Spark. The WNET Group.

Video: "Ailey"—PBS American Masters

Video: "Loving the unknown Alvin Ailey"—PBS American Masters

Video: Portrait of Ailey documentary

President Obama Announces the Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients 

"The Master of Movement: Choreographer Alvin Ailey, the Spring in America's Steps Alvin Ailey"—The Washington Post 

Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.

Alvin Ailey was born on Jan 5, 1931, in Rogers, TX, where he grew up with his mother, working in cotton fields and witnessing the river baptisms at their local church. These childhood experiences inspired some of his most memorable works, including Revelations, a three-part suite that explores the places of deepest grief and holiest joy in the soul through spirituals, gospel, and holy blues music. Ailey recounted that one of America’s richest treasures was the African American cultural heritage—“sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.”

• Considering his upbringing during the Great Depression and Jim Crow, how might Ailey, as an artistic visionary, have been uniquely equipped to represent American culture?
• How did the unique social and historical conditions of the United States in the centuries leading up to, and during the life of Ailey Ailey, inspire Black Americans to create the blues?
• How might American culture and history be reflected in the history and sounds of spirituals, even for a global audience?

Ailey experienced concert dance for the first time after moving to Los Angeles. At a time when classical dance classrooms and schools were barred to Black Americans, Ailey’s close friend, dancer Carmen de Lavallade, introduced him to Lester Horton, the founder of one of the first racially integrated dance companies in the United States, where Ailey began his formal dance training. Horton became a mentor to Ailey, and after Horton’s passing in 1953, Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. 

• How might his foundational experience with Lester Horton, rooted in racial integration and groundbreaking dance technique, have inspired Ailey to create his own company?
• Can you think of a mentor or teacher who inspired your personal or professional career path? What qualities made them an effective mentor?

In 1958, Ailey founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to carry out his vision of a company dedicated to uplifting the African American experience while enriching and preserving the legacy of modern dance. Ailey described his vision: “Making dances is an act of progress; it is an act of growth, an act of music, an act of teaching, an act of celebration, an act of joy.” Ailey’s work, which has been performed in 71 countries on six continents, was named by a U.S. Congressional resolution as a “vital American Cultural Ambassador to the world.”

• In your experience, what role, if any, does joy have in inspiring social progress?
• How might Ailey’s work have impacted the global dance landscape and promoted cross-cultural understanding?

Before Ailey’s untimely passing in 1989, he named Judith Jamison, one of Ailey's previous principal dancers, as his successor. Jamison, who passed away in 2024, led the company and expanded the joyful legacy of Ailey’s work, educating and inspiring countless people, and mentored her successor Robert Battle. Alicia Graf Mack, former principal dancer for Ailey and dean and director of the Dance Division of The Juilliard School, was named artistic director in 2025. Graf Mack reflects on the legacy of Ailey and the impact of Judith Jamison: “[She] was my north star. I kept a poster of her in my bedroom growing up, like she was my Michael Jordan. I joined the company under her direction. And she lived up to every ounce of expectation … that I had for someone of her stature. She would give incredible notes and corrections. And she would say it in the voice of Ailey.”

• How might one’s experience as a touring artist and professional dancer prepare them for leading a company? What additional training might be needed?