Alvin Ailey (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an African-American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. He is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th-century concert dance. His company gained the nickname "Cultural Ambassador to the World" because of its extensive international touring.
His most important work, Revelations (1960), was based on the American Negro spirituals. They traveled around the world, including Australia in 1962 and Senegal in 1966. They became in 1984 the first group performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where most of its components were black. In 1985 he toured China.
His works include works such as Blues Suite (1958) and Mass (1971, with music by Leonard Bernstein. He was choreographer for some other companies besides his own, as the American Ballet Theatre, the Paris Opera Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet, for which he created Feast of Ashes (1962).
I like him very much because his language it means so interesting to me, the way esthetic form installing the body.
