In Photos: Celebrating Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Alvin Ailey, front, with other company dancers in his production Blues Suite (c.1962). Ailey formed the company of young black modern dancers in 1958: he led the company and was also a choreographer and principal dancer.

Photograph: courtesy of Ailey Archives

Ailey, James Truitte, Don Martin, Myrna White, Ella Thompson and Minnie Marshall performing the company’s signature work, Revelations, which premiered in 1960.

Photograph: Jack Mitchell

Ailey with Judith Jamison – who joined as a dancer in 1965 and succeeded him as artistic director in 1989, the year he died.

Photograph: Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution