Whitney Museum of American Art brings you ‘Edges of Ailey’

Edges of Ailey, opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art on September 25, is the first large-scale museum exhibition to celebrate the life, dances, influences, adjacencies, and enduring legacy of visionary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey. This dynamic showcase brings together visual art, live performance, music, a range of archival materials, and a multi-screen video installation drawn from recordings of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) repertory to explore the full range of Ailey’s personal and creative life. Presented in three parts, Edges of Ailey consists of an immersive exhibition in the Museum’s 18,000 square-foot fifth-floor galleries, an ambitious suite of performances in the Museum’s third-floor Theater, and an accompanying scholarly catalogue.

The exhibition centers on the man himself, capturing the full range of Ailey’s passions, curiosities, and creativity revealed in his archives, across his dances, and within a continuum of other artists spanning nearly two centuries. These elements form a historical account, provide a constellatory survey, and unfold as a tribute to the legendary artist’s life, career, and far-reaching impact on the histories of dance, Black creativity, and American culture. Edges of Ailey affirms the artist’s place as one of the most culturally and historically significant artistic figures in the United States and the world.

“Following six years of dreaming, planning, and researching, the extravaganza that is Edges of Ailey finally enters the world,” said Adrienne Edwards, Engell Speyer Family Senior Curator and Associate Director of Curatorial Programs. “Throughout this process, we have had the gift of Mr. Ailey’s guidance, available to us in his notebooks, interviews, dances, and by the way he did things, to which we have kept very close, and which has shaped every aspect of this show. Until now, there have been many exhibitions in art museums about dance but none about Ailey, a true icon and unquestionably deserving subject. Along the way, every time I told someone that I was working on this project, they would share their own Ailey experience. So many of us have a story about Ailey, the dance company. Such is the extent of his importance and reach. Now audiences will have the chance to know his story. It is no small task to hold someone’s legacy of this cultural magnitude in your hands. We have made something that aims to have the same imagination, sparkle, generosity, rigor, and daring as did he.”

Edges of Ailey was developed through extensive archival research. From the sweeping holdings of performance footage, recorded interviews, notebooks, letters, choreographic notes, and drawings, to other ephemera gathered from nearly 10 sources, the archives forge a vital throughline in the gallery. A dynamic montage of Ailey’s life and dances will play on loop across an 18-channel video installation, created by filmmakers Josh Begley and Kya Lou, with Edwards. This film is composed of newly digitized performance documentation, dances made for the camera, animated archival images, televised broadcasts, and contextual footage of cultural, social, political, and social events of the time. Visitors also encounter intimate displays of never-before-seen selections from Ailey’s personal archive, providing a foundation for understanding everything from his daily routine and artistic thinking to the demands of touring and his grappling with being gay. Ailey’s short stories and poems are shown publicly and reproduced in the catalogue for the first time.

Edges of Ailey offers a once in a lifetime opportunity for Museum visitors to enjoy live performances by AILEY and an esteemed group of choreographers and their collaborators in the Museum’s third-floor Theater. More information about individual performances and ticketing will be available starting in September. Performance tickets include same-day access to the exhibition. Reservations required and space is limited.

September 25–29: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II October 4–6: Trajal Harrell

October 10–12: Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE November 1–3: Matthew Rushing

November 7–9: Yusha-Marie Sorzano November 16: Bill T. Jones November 20–24: Ailey II

December 13–15: Will Rawls December 18–22: Ailey II January 9–11: Sarah Michelson

January 17–19: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

January 22–26: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and The Ailey School February 6–8: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born

February 7: Ralph Lemon and Kevin Beasley

Starting Tuesday, July 23, visitors can purchase timed tickets for the in-gallery exhibition Edges of Ailey, on view September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025. Member previews run from September