Alvin Ailey was an American choreographer with a seismic impact on modern dance in this century. He revolutionized the way African-American rituals, experiences, music and literature were presented through dance and carved a niche for the voice of that community that continues through his company 10 years after his death.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is currently touring Japan in celebration of its 40th anniversary. Under artistic director Judith Jamison and associate Masazumi Chaya, the group faithfully follows the choreographic heritage laid by Ailey in more than 50 works and complements this core repertoire with newer pieces commissioned from the modern choreographic family of Ulysses Dove, Bill T. Jones, Donald Byrd, Garth Fagan and the like. Just as Ailey drew on the great musical heritage of jazz, the blues, gospel as well as classical works by Bartok, Ravel, Satie, Britten and Stravinsky, so Jamison's challenge is now to steer this company into the next century while keeping intact Ailey's powerful mandate to draw inspiration from the African-American experience.

As that experience broadens to include the stories of peoples from other cultural backgrounds, so the ethnic makeup of the company has broadened to include dancers of different ethnic backgrounds and a body of choreography that speaks to a more diverse audience. Like the new faces in the ranks of this poetic, athletic and overwhelmingly musical company, the productions in the three programs presented in Japan look to the possibilities of the future as much as the lessons learned and celebrated in the past.