Updated December 2, 2025 at 12:16 PM PST
Alicia Graf Mack's office is filled with ghosts, the benevolent kind. She sits at an industrial metal desk once occupied by Alvin Ailey, the late dancer and choreographer who founded the dance company that bears his name in 1958. In a corner stands a chaise lounge that belonged to the late Judith Jamison, the group's longtime principal dancer who succeeded Ailey as artistic director.
Graf Mack, who took over that prized role in July, calls them Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's "founding angels." Her most immediate predecessor was Robert Battle, who stepped down in 2023 after 12 years.
It is their vision, one "grounded in bravery, grounded in strength, courage and grounded in our stories" that Graf Mack says she seeks to carry forward as the company kicks off its first season under her leadership.
The season, which begins Dec. 3, features five world premieres, including Maija García's Jazz Island. The narrative piece showcases the full company in a throwback to earlier signature Ailey works like Revelations (1960), which hails Black history and culture.
Graf Mack, who twice served as principal dancer with the company, describes her vision for the season as one that straddles the line between the "powerful, visceral" dance Ailey is known for and a "new era of fresh energy."
Other new works are by Fredrick Earl Mosley, Matthew Neenan and Jamar Roberts. Urban Bush Women founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar also collaborated with Ailey dancer Samantha Figgins and former company member Chalvar Monteiro on a new work.
Ailey will also perform Medhi Walerski's Blink of an Eye (2011) in a company first and a new production of Jamison's A Case of You (2004).
'A surprise and a blessing'
After her first stint with the company in 2005 to 2008, gracing the stage with her elongated silhouette, Graf Mack left to earn a master's degree in nonprofit management, before returning from 2011 to 2014. She then shifted her career to education. She led Juilliard's dance division from 2018 until rejoining Ailey this past summer.
Today, Ailey is one of the most acclaimed American dance companies. The group has an annual monthlong engagement at New York City Center and tours internationally. A junior company — Ailey II — and a school also fall under its umbrella.
"This stage of my life is such a surprise and a blessing," said Graf Mack. "I grew up with the dream of being a dancer. And to have fulfilled that dream under the direction of Judith Jamison and Robert Battle... was exactly what I hoped to do with my life."
In her childhood bedroom, she hung a poster of Jamison, aspiring to emulate her idol as principal dancer for the company. And ultimately, she did.
"What she did for the company to really create a brand name out of the organization, to have a permanent home in New York City, for the organization to uplift Black and brown people all over the world, to create a company that is a cultural ambassador of American and Black culture is incredible," Graf Mack said.
"So I really looked to her when I started going through the phases of re-educating myself in nonprofit management and then finding a life in higher education."
Graf Mack takes up the helm at a time when the Trump administration has aggressively sought to cut federal funding for the arts and reshape the American cultural landscape.
Ailey has been a perennial highlight of the Kennedy Center. But it is breaking with tradition by performing at the smaller Warner Theater instead early next year.
"We felt that it was necessary to find a venue where everyone felt welcome to come and experience the magic of Ailey," Graf Mack said.
"We have been performing in Washington, D.C. yearly for so many years, and it was so important for us to be able to reach our audiences and to be able to honor them, to say thank you for coming to see us year by year and not having to make any choices or decisions when they buy that ticket."
President Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, replacing leaders and board members with his handpicked successors, while seeking to shift away from what he has criticized as "woke" programming. Some artists have since shunned Washington's premier arts center, or seen their performances canceled, and audiences have dwindled.
As a leader of an artistic institution in polarizing times, Graf Mack says she reminds herself of Alvin Ailey's guiding principle to lift people through the arts — in the studio, in community classes and in theaters. "The arts should be lifted and supported and that really is the one of the only ways that we can see our young people establish their self-worth and their self-esteem," she said.
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Ana Perez. The digital version was edited by Obed Manuel.
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