The Legacy of Alvin Ailey  

Floor 3, Theater

This panel brings together three leading AILEY dancers and artistic directors—Judith Jamison, Masazumi Chaya, and Sylvia Waters—to share their stories of Alvin Ailey and their experiences in the Company. In dialogue with Adrienne Edwards, curator of Edges of Ailey, their conversation illuminates Ailey’s singular impact on twentieth-century dance and culture.  

Speakers 

Masazumi Chaya was born in Fukuoka, Japan, where he began his classical ballet training. Upon moving to New York in December 1970, he studied modern dance and performed with the Richard Englund Repertory Company. Chaya joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1972 and performed with the Company for fifteen years. In 1988, he became the Company’s Rehearsal Director after serving as Assistant Rehearsal Director for two years. A master teacher, both on tour with the Company and in his native Japan, he served as choreographic assistant to Alvin Ailey and John Butler. From 1991 to 2019, Chaya served as Associate Artistic Director of the Company. He continues to provide invaluable creative assistance in all facets of its operations. 

Judith Jamison, Artistic Director Emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, joined the company in 1965 and quickly became an international star. Over the following fifteen years, Ailey created some of his most enduring roles for her, most notably the tour-de-force solo Cry. During the 1970s and ’80s, she appeared as a guest artist with ballet companies all over the world, starred in the hit Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies, and formed her own company, The Jamison Project. She returned to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1989 when Ailey asked her to succeed him as Artistic Director. In the twenty-one years that followed, she brought the Company to unprecedented heights—including two historic engagements in South Africa and a fifty-city global tour to celebrate the Company’s fiftieth anniversary.  

Sylvia Waters is Ailey II Artistic Director Emerita. In 1974, she was personally selected by Alvin Ailey as Artistic Director of Ailey II and led the company for thirty-eight years. She attended The Juilliard School and, after receiving her BS from Juilliard, she moved to Paris, where she appeared regularly on television. She toured in the European company of Black Nativity and worked with Michel Descombey, then director of the Paris Opera Ballet, as well as Milko Šparembleck.  In 1968, Waters joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and toured with the Company until assuming leadership of Ailey II.