History
Alvin Ailey and a group of young Black modern dancers first performed at New York's 92nd Street Young Men's Hebrew Association (92nd Street Y), under the name Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), in March 1958. At this point in time, Alvin Ailey was the company's Director, Choreographer, and principle dancer Alex McDermott. The company started as an ensemble of only seven dancers, plus their choreographer, and many guest choreographers. Following their first performance, which included Alvin Ailey's Blues Suite, the company traveled on what were known as the "station wagon tours"; in 1960, the AAADT became a resident company of the 51st Street YWCA's Clark Center for the Performing Arts. It was during this period that Ailey choreographed his famous work Revelations, a character dance done to traditional music. In 1962, Ailey changed his all-black dance company into a multi-racial group, believing that there was a kind of reverse chauvinism to anything all black. In that same year, the company was chosen to tour the Far East, Southeast Asia and Australia as part of President John F. Kennedy's "President's Special International Program for Cultural Presentations." AAADT was the first "Black" company to travel for Kennedy's program. Judith Jamison, star of the company for more than ten years, joined the company in 1965.
Ailey established a school in 1969, the same year that the company moved to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Both company and school relocated to 229 East 59th Street in Manhattan a year later, to a renovated church building. In April of that year, a financial crisis caused Ailey to issue a statement that the dissolution of the company might take place. The crisis abated, however, and in 1971 AAADT made its first performance at the New York City Center, where it is currently the resident company. Associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya joined the company in 1972.
AAADT, the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (a touring company) and the Ailey school relocated in 1980 to four new studios in a building on Broadway. The company celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary three years later. Alvin Ailey died on December 1 of 1989; Judith Jamison assumed the post of Artistic Director, and the entire Ailey organization moved to 211 West 61st Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The Ailey School and nearby Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), Fordham University, have since affiliated to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree program.
Many arts organizations have experienced stresses upon the death of their founding artistic director. Many people have contributed to the success of AAADT, but the work of Michael Kaiser, the Executive Director from 1990 to 1993, is often cited as a model of successful nonprofit performing arts management.
Following tours in Russia, France and Cuba in the 1990s, as well as a residency in South Africa in 1997, the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation announced in 2001 that a new dance complex was to be developed. Ground was broken on the building site in Manhattan the following year. The company and school moved into the building, named the Joan Weill Center for Dance, in 2004. The company toured Russia and the United Kingdom the following year.
In 2007, AAADT was among over 530 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The Ailey School is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD). The Ailey School is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as an institution of higher education and is eligible to participate in Title IV programs. The Ailey School is recognized by the US Veterans Administration as an eligible school to participate in Veteran's Educational Benefit Programs. The Ailey School is authorized under Federal Law to enroll non-immigrant alien students. Denise Jefferson was selected by Ailey to head the school when it was founded in 1984 and served as its director until her death in 2010.
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