A New Window into Dance History: Explore the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Performance Data
By ICPSR Staff
NADAC is pleased to announce the release of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Performance Dataset, 1958-1989 (ICPSR 39654). The data are freely available on the NADAC website.
Curated by Kate Elswit and Harmony Bench (Moving Data), these data document 2,207 AAADT performances, richly detailing dates, locations, repertory, and company membership from the founding of the company in 1958 until Alvin Ailey’s death in 1989. Drawing from over 30,000 archival materials–programs, tour itineraries, performer diaries and personal notes–the dataset captures the collective knowledge and histories that transformed AAADT from a small touring company into a global phenomenon.
Unlock 30 Years of Dance History –
Access the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Performance Dataset
This rich resource was created for Radical Accounting: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Data as a Framework for Historical Imagination—an innovative project commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art for the landmark exhibition Edges of Ailey (Sept. 2024–Feb. 2025).
The project was made possible through support from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, the College of Arts and Sciences and Global Arts and Humanities at The Ohio State University, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, as well as vital contributions from Dominique Singer, Archivist for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, and a dedicated team of scholars and assistants.
Data visualizations derived from the AAADT dataset are available on the Whitney Museum of American Art website.
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About NADAC
The National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture (NADAC) is a repository that facilitates research on arts and culture by acquiring data, particularly those funded by federal agencies and other organizations, and sharing those data with researchers, policymakers, people in the arts and culture field, and the general public. It is one of several topical archives hosted by ICPSR, the largest social science data archive in the world and part of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, NADAC provides arts-related data and related resources completely free of charge. Sign up to receive notifications about NADAC’s data releases.