[7] As an escape, Ailey found refuge in the church, sneaking out at night to watch adults dance, and in writing a journal, a practice that he maintained his entire life.

[11] He frequently attended the Lincoln and Orpheum Theatres, where he was able to see a variety of African American performers, including Pearl Bailey, Fletcher Henderson, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Pigmeat Markham, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington.

[16] Instead, he pursued academic courses, studying romance languages and writing at UCLA (1949),[24][25] Los Angeles City College (1950–1951), and San Francisco State University (1952).

[16] Living in San Francisco, he met Maya Angelou, then known as Marguerite Johnson,[26] with whom he formed a nightclub act called "Al and Rita".

He also choreographed and directed Morning Mourning (4 June 1954), a piece based on[16] the work of Tennessee Williams featuring de Lavallade and set to an original score by Gertrude Rivers Robinson.

[16] In December, 1954 De Lavallade and Ailey were recruited by Herbert Ross (who had choreographed Carmen Jones) to join the Broadway show, House of Flowers.

Ross had been hired to replace George Balanchine as the show's choreographer and he wanted to use the pair, who had become known as a famous dance team in Los Angeles, as featured dancers.

[32][33] The show's book was written and adapted by Truman Capote from one of his novellas with music from Harold Arlen and starred Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll.

The company had its debut at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA on March 30, 1958 in a concert shared with choreographer Ernest Parham, with headlining guest artist Talley Beatty.

[16] Following the success of his first concert, Ailey continued choreographing for a shifting roster of dancers who were available for dances at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA, working with designers Normand Maxon, Ves Harper, and Nicola Cernovich.

These works included the integrated Ariette Oubliée (December 21, 1958, a choreographic fantasy pantomime set to Debussy's similarly named song cycle and featuring Don Price and de Lavallade.

Ailey also reworked Creation of the World for this performance as a duet for himself and Matt Turney of the Martha Graham Dance Company, which received great acclaim.

In creating Revelations, Ailey drew upon his "blood memories" of growing up in Texas surrounded by Black people, the church, spirituals, and the blues.

The ballet charts the full range of feelings, from the majestic "I Been ’Buked" to the rapturous "Wade in the Water", closing with the electrifying finale, "Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham".

Originally conceived as a group work, it premiered as a solo for Ailey performed to Leontyne Price's recording of Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs.

[11] In the fall of 1961, the US State Department invited the AADT (under the banner of the Lavallade-Ailey American Dance Company) to tour Southeast Asia and Australia as a part of President Kennedy's Special International Program for Cultural Presentations.

This tour began on 3 February in Sydney, Australia, and ended on 12 May 1962 in Seoul, South Korea, performing sixty times in thirteen weeks.

In August 1964, Ailey choreographed a dance, The Twelve Gates, in honor of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn's golden anniversary.

This work debuted at the 1968 Edinburgh Festival, and premiered in New York at the Billy Rose Theatre as a part of AAADT's first Broadway season.

This work directly addresses racial politics with the intention of drawing a parallel between the Apartheid and the shooting to death of Fred Hampton.

While working with BAM, he sponsored free classes for children and young adults "geared to channel formidable youth rage into art".

[16] Ailey was dissatisfied with the residency due to cramped quarters and BAM director Harvey Lichtenstein's racialized business tactics.

[16] In 1970, with few bookings on the radar — and on the eve of a tour to Russia as part of a cultural exchange agreement — Ailey announced at a press conference that he was closing the company.

At this performance, he premiered Flowers, set to music by Blind Faith, Pink Floyd, and Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

This piece, set to recorded music by Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, and Bill Withers, featured Dennis Wayne and Bonnie Mathis in story about a couple "cornered into a relationship of violence and need, smoking pot and mainlining heroin.

[16] Ailey also studied acting with Stella Adler from 1960 to 1962, acting in non-dancing roles in dramatic plays including Call Me by My Rightful Name (January 1961) with costars Robert Duvall and Joan Hackett, and Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, also starting Roscoe Lee Browne, Al Freeman Jr., Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Cicely Tyson.

With the addition of the Elaine Wynn and Family Education Wing, the Ailey school is still growing and is now the largest place in New York City committed to training dancers.

[64] He asked his doctor to announce that his death was caused by terminal blood dyscrasia in order to shield his mother from the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

[81] Wignot first discovered the work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater by attending a performance while she was a student at Wellesley College; in her documentary more than twenty years later, Alexandra Villarreal of The Guardian writes, "What emerges is a towering figure who won worldwide acclaim with art steeped in personal experience, yet was too afraid to openly share his full identity even in death.

I'm interested in putting something on stage that will have a very wide appeal without being condescending; that will reach an audience and make it part of the dance; that will get everybody into the theater.