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Alvin Ailey
Born in small-town Texas in the 1930s, Ailey was first exposed to dance by performances of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the Katherine Dunham Dance Company in Los Angeles.
In the 1950s, most dance companies were still not integrated and, following the vision of his mentor, Lester Horton, Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The goal was “to carry out his vision of a company dedicated to enriching the American modern dance heritage and preserving the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience,” according to the theater.
A decade later he opened the Ailey School, and was active in bringing dance and arts education to under served communities.
He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1988 and, posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.
Ailey died in 1989 of AIDS-related illness but, for the sake of his mother, he asked doctors to announce the cause of death was terminal blood dyscrasia.
In his obituary, The New York Times wrote, “you didn’t need to have known Ailey personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm, and exuberance and his courageous stand for multiracial brotherhood.”
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