Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey created one of the most beloved works in the history of American dance — Revelations, a thirty-six-minute ballet set to Negro spirituals that has been seen by more people worldwide than any other modern dance performance. First performed in 1960, Revelations transformed the grief and glory of the Black church into movement so powerful and universal that it transcends language, culture, and time.

Born in Rogers, Texas, in 1931, Ailey grew up in extreme poverty in the Jim Crow South. His early memories — of tent revival churches, juke joints, and the texture of Black rural life — became the raw material for his art. After moving to Los Angeles as a teenager, he discovered dance through the classes of Lester Horton, one of the first choreographers to run a racially integrated company.

Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 with a group of young Black dancers. Over the next three decades, he created a body of work that celebrated Black culture while pushing the boundaries of modern dance. The company became one of the most popular dance troupes in the world, and after Ailey's death in 1989, his protégée Judith Jamison carried his vision forward for two decades.