About AILEY

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Please Credit Photo: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Photo by Dario Calmese
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Founded by Alvin Ailey on March 30, 1958, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is one of the most acclaimed dance companies in the world. With a repertory that boasts close to 300 works by more than 100 choreographers, it has performed in more than 70 countries on six continents and has been designated a "vital American Cultural Ambassador to the World” by a US Congressional resolution. 

The Ailey Organization includes: Ailey II (a second performing company of young dancers and emerging choreographers), The Ailey School (one of the world's most extensive dance training programs), Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs (which bring dance into classrooms and communities), and Ailey Extension (offering dance and fitness classes to the public). Using the American modern dance tradition and the beauty of the African American cultural heritage, AILEY enlightens, unites, and inspires all people.    

Featured News Releases

Ailey II Celebrates Golden Anniversary Season At The Joyce Theater April 9 - 14

NEW YORK – March 5, 2024 — Fresh on the heels of a successful world tour, Ailey II, the celebrated second company to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, returns to The Joyce Theater from April 9 – 14 with a golden anniversary celebratory program. During the eight-performance engagement their “dynamic movement and dazzling technique” will shine in premieres by Artistic Director Francesca Harper and the exciting duo of Baye & Asa, Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington and Sam ‘Asa’ Pratt, alongside repertory favorites and revered classics by beloved founder Alvin Ailey, William Forsythe, and Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison.

Ailey II, The Next Generation Of Dance, Returns To U.S. Stages Led By New Artistic Director Francesca Harper

NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 1, 2022 — Ailey II, merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best early-career dance talent with the passion and creative vision of outstanding emerging and established choreographers, returns to stages across the country this winter. Ailey II Artistic Director Francesca Harper—an internationally renowned performer, choreographer, director, and multi-disciplinary artist—is nurturing new creative voices and propelling the Company forward during her inaugural season. Trained at The Ailey School (and the daughter of the late Denise Jefferson, director of The Ailey School 1984-2010), Ms. Harper brings fresh perspectives to Mr. Ailey’s legacy. Program highlights from the repertory for the national tour and the New York City season featuring four new works and one world premiere include dances by Alvin Ailey, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle, William Forsythe, Francesca Harper, Ailey company member Yannick Lebrun, and Andrea Miller.

Featured Press Coverage

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Interview - “If You Can Walk, You Can Dance”: Inside the Whitney Museum’s Alvin Ailey Retrospective

In 1949, as legend has it, Alvin Ailey, then a young gymnast, followed school buddy and fellow future dance icon Carmen de Lavallade to the famed Lester Horton “Dance Theater” on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. It was a simple gesture that would lay the groundwork for the future of American concert dance. After Horton’s unexpected death, Ailey took over the Horton company for a while before starting the eponymous Alvin Ailey Company in New York, forming a beautiful, long and deeply intersectional lineage that incorporated dance, art, and innumerable interconnected histories culminating in the very first exhibit of the archival record of the Alvin Ailey Company, a show five years in the making and currently on view at The Whitney Museum of American Art.