JUDITH JAMISON and KYLE ABRAHAM on the LIFE and LEGACY of legendary choreographer ALVIN AILEY, the subject of a major new exhibition

When Alvin Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the age of 27, in 1958, he wanted to create a company dedicated to exploring and expressing the Black experience through dance.

- KYLE ABRAHAM

His seminal works include the joyous Blues Suite, set to traditional blues music sung by Brother John Sellers, about men and women in the rural Depression-era Texas of his childhood spending a night out drinking and dancing; 1971's Cry, an emotional birthday gift to his mother; and his most famous piece, 1960's Revelations, a celebration of the "blood memories" of his youth, set to spirituals, song-sermons, gospel, and holy blues. When he died in 1989, he had choreographed 79 narrative works. More importantly, he'd brought performers and choreographers of color-and the stories that resonated with them and their audiences-into mainstream classical and modern dance.

Ailey was also a lover of music, literature, and visual art, and he often looked to his creative contemporaries for inspiration. It's an aspect of his work that will be showcased in "Edges of Ailey," an expansive new survey opening on September 25 at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art. Along with daily live performances, the exhibition will include paintings, sculptures, photographic works, prints, videos, and texts by other artists who collaborated with or influenced Ailey, from legendary contralto Marian Anderson and writer James Baldwin to artist Romare Bearden and choreographer and former Ailey dancer Carmen de Lavallade. The artworks will be assembled thematically around ideas that Ailey touched on in his choreography, from the experiences of Black migrants to Black spirituality, creativity, and liberation.