Carrying On the Legacy

By JANICE C. SIMPSON

Few artistic relationships are closer than that between a choreographer and the dancer who embodies his or her inspiration. Such was the relationship between Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison. Ailey, at the head of his own dance company, drew on gospel music, the blues and other legacies of the black experience to create works that helped open the world of dance to new audiences and new performers. Jamison was the majestic dancer who performed Ailey's creations with a poetry and passion that matched his own. In such a collaboration, says Jamison, the other person "knows what you're doing without your telling him. He knows your movements, what's going on inside your body, your mind and your spirit."

Nevertheless, Jamison was eager to stand on her own, and she left the Ailey troupe in 1980. But the mystical bond between them never weakened. So in 1988, when Ailey, ill with a rare blood disorder, invited Jamison to accompany him on what would be his last tour, she didn't hesitate. Between rehearsals, performances and travel, Ailey prepared her to carry on his legacy. She became artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater less than three weeks after his death in 1989.

The passing of a founder can be a severe blow to any institution. Yet today, under Jamison, 48, the Ailey troupe has never looked better. Its technique is sharper than it has been in years, and it has lost none of its usual sassy flair. Behind the scenes, Jamison has stabilized the Manhattan-based company's finances by finding it a second home in Baltimore, where it will maintain a residency for five weeks each year. In New York City throughout this month, she will oversee a dance camp for disadvantaged kids that continues Ailey's mission of taking dance to the masses.

Jamison's approach to running the troupe differs in some respects from Ailey's -- he encouraged dancers to discover their own mistakes, she is more direct about what she wants; he shied away from fund raising and publicity, she embraces both -- but their artistic goals are the same. "Her aesthetic is built on Alvin's," says Denise Jefferson, director of the company's dance school. "The transition was smooth because Judy was coming home."

Jamison and Ailey first met in 1965, when she stumbled over him while rushing off-stage after an unsuccessful audition for a television special. Although the famed choreographer Agnes de Mille had discovered her and given the young dancer her first professional role, in a piece created for the American Ballet Theater, Jamison found that her height (5 ft. 10 in.), dark coloring and close-cropped hair made it difficult to find other jobs in a world that prized petite, fair women with flowing tresses. Ailey, however, recognized her special talent and kindred spirit and invited her to join his company. Their partnership flourished, reaching its apogee in 1971, when Ailey created Cry, a solo dance tribute to black women that became Jamison's signature piece.

After going on her own, Jamison starred in the Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies and appeared with several other dance companies as a guest performer and later as a choreographer. In 1988 she founded her own troupe, the Jamison Project, which gave her valuable experience in fund raising and other management responsibilities necessary to keep a dance group on its feet. When Ailey died, Jamison folded the company that bore her name into the one that bore her friend's. "Ego is important to me," she admits, "but the sustenance of this company is very important to me." The collaboration goes on.