Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

The Joan Weill Center for Dance stands at the corner of Ninth Avenue and West 55th Street as the largest facility in the United States dedicated exclusively to dance. The building occupies the exact site of the former WNET television studios where Alvin Ailey filmed his first television special in the early nineteen sixties. Architects designed the structure with a transparent glass exterior to allow passersby to look directly into the studios and witness the daily process of creation and rehearsal. Inside the lobby, a massive photographic wall hanging spans two stories, capturing a nineteen sixty-nine image of Alvin Ailey alongside his successor, Judith Jamison. The facility includes sixteen climate-controlled studios, physical therapy rooms equipped with motion-capture technology, and a flexible performance space known as the Ailey Citigroup Theater.