‘I clearly remember Revelations,’ says Matthew Rushing, associate artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, about his first encounter with the iconic choreographer’s work. ‘I had recently been baptised. And within the middle of Revelations, there’s a depiction of a baptism. And you see a procession of people, all dressed in white, walking near the riverside.’ His mother took the 12-year-old Matthew to see the performance. ‘I sat there in awe, because I never thought it was possible for me to come to a theatre and see my life danced in front of me. As a young person, being able to connect to a high artform like that, and to have such a close understanding of what was going on onstage, changed my life.’ 

The significance of Alvin Ailey on American dance, in particular African-American dance, cannot be overstated. Born in Texas at a time when racial segregation was still openly practised, to a single mother who worked back-breaking jobs to provide for him, Ailey nevertheless went on to study languages and dance (from tap to Native American to ballet), and founded his own dance company in 1958 at the age of 27. 

In the 1960s, AAADT represented the US on international cultural tours (including to the Edinburgh Festival in 1968), and in 1988 Ailey received the Kennedy Center Honor for contribution to American culture. He was a leading light in his era and collaborated with other Black luminaries such as Maya Angelou (they had a cabaret act together called Al And Rita) and Duke Ellington (who wrote the score for his piece The River, which will be performed as part of Programme 2 at this year’s EIF).

Ailey’s ability to channel a whole culture, while also creating work that feels intensely personal, may account for Revelations having achieved a status that is extraordinary: it’s acknowledged as the most widely seen piece of modern dance in the world.

‘I do feel that different people have different experiences [of Revelations],’ says Rushing. ‘A lot of those experiences fall simply with the music. That’s where we start. The Negro spirituals possess a spirit of lament, a spirit of expressing one’s sorrow, but only in order to reach hope.’ It’s a sentiment that transcends cultural boundaries, says Rushing. ‘Yes, it came from African-American culture. Yes, it came from oppressed people in slavery. But there’s something about that sorrow and that search for hope that’s universal.’

Rushing has spent his career with AAADT, first studying at the company’s Ailey School before coming up through the ranks of Ailey II, the repertory company. He joined the main group in 1992, before working with them as a choreographer, and is now associate artistic director. 

It’s not unusual for the company to attract dancers who want to stay and grow with them in this way. Principal dancer Sarah Daley-Perdomo, who will be performing in Edinburgh, has been with the main company for 13 years. Like Rushing, she also spent time in Ailey II, and before that trained at the Ailey School. It’s given her a close relationship to Ailey’s repertoire and an understanding of how roles are earned or matured into. 

‘I have danced a few different roles in Revelations,’ she says. ‘As you go on in your years within the company, you graduate to more heavy roles. You wouldn’t be a first-year member and be cast as the woman who holds the umbrella. That’s one of the roles that carries a lot of weight.’ 

Rushing concurs. ‘You’re not allowed to do certain roles until you have lived a certain amount of time on this earth,’ he says. ‘Because you are expected to bring those life experiences into the choreography. So as people come and they watch this genius of a work, they’re also seeing it portrayed and articulated through individual voices that have lived, that have served, that have travelled the world, that have experienced both heartache and trauma.’

In Programme 1, Revelations will be performed alongside two contemporary pieces, BUSK by Aszure Barton and Are You in Your Feelings? by Kyle Abraham, while Programme 2 sees it paired with Ailey repertoire The River and In Memoria. It was important to Rushing to create a programme that balanced old and new while capturing the essence of Ailey’s ethos. Throughout his career, Ailey invited peers to share the stage with him. Part of celebrating his legacy involves showcasing the work of choreographers whose styles may be quite different to his. 

‘From the beginning, Mr Ailey invited other voices to be a part of his programmes,’ says Rushing. ‘So when I see that tradition of inviting other choreographers, sometimes I immediately feel that essence of Mr Ailey; and other times I don’t feel it at all, because I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted diversity. He wanted different voices.’

Daley-Perdomo too says that while no one would deny Ailey’s influence on American dance, his legacy is not as simple as his style having percolated down into that of his successors. ‘Sometimes it’s deliberate, and what you see is referencing [Ailey]; historical works or his own technique that he’s created. But other times, choreographers are just inspired by the space that he gave to dancers of colour, and influenced by that freedom for a choreographer to be completely themselves and create art in whatever way is significant to them, whether it be about the Black experience or just a celebration of dance.’

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Programme 1, 23, 25 August, 7.30pm; Programme 2, 24 August, 7.30pm, 25 August, 2.30pm; all performances at Festival Theatre.