At a time when racism kept African American talent out of major dance troupes, the trailblazing Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founded in 1958, not only broke the color barrier but brought modern dance to a mass audience.
It ain't easy keeping a dance company alive and kicking for 50 years - and doing it with flying colors is cause for celebration!
Vivian Nixon stepped out of the classroom last spring and onto the Broadway stage in the musical "Hot Feet" to become one of the most talked-about young stars of the season.
New York audiences are so used to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's annual winter appearances at City Center that the idea of finding the company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in June is positively disconcerting.
Inspiring donors and audiences alike, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater sails into its next half-century with equal parts exuberance and grace.
By the time dancers hit the professional stage, they've been training for a decade or more. But you learn to perform by getting up and doing it.
Is it quibbling to say that the Ailey II dancers look way too professional to be members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's junior troupe?
To see young dancers perform at the start of their careers is to see dance in a poignantly pure or raw state.
Sylvia Waters and Judith Jamison
There's something alluring and a little bit mysterious about hip-hop dance, even performed informally on the street by a group of teenagers killing time.