Jenice Armstrong: Alvin Ailey troupe's famed Judith Jamison reflects on its 'past, present and future'

HOW DO YOU celebrate your 50th birthday when you're the legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre?

Why, in one of the most American ways possible - with a new Barbie doll. Due out this fall, it's created in the image of Judith Jamison, the troupe's iconic artistic director and public face. The doll will have Jamison's skin tone and hair and be dressed in a costume from one of the troupe's signature dances, "Revelations."

And what's a birthday blowout without a greeting card . . . or six? Hallmark Cards recently issued a collection featuring images of Alvin Ailey dancers in action. Movado, the luxury watchmaker, will issue a commemorative timepiece; the U.S. Library of Congress plans a special exhibit to open in a few weeks and as you'd expect, there's a whole slew of special dance performances scheduled. This weekend, the troupe will be in Philadelphia for three performances at the Academy of Music and will feature a fresh take on "Firebird."

"It's so fabulous. It's 18 months of things going on," Jamison, 64, said during a phone interview last week. "The paradigm that Mr. Ailey set before us is that we celebrate past, present and future."

Speaking of the past, the Alvin Ailey dance troupe had its first performance in New York City in 1958. Initially called Alvin Ailey and Dancers, the group was made up of just eight African-American performers, all unpaid, who came together for a well-received modern dance performance at a Manhattan community center. That led to what's referred to as "station wagon tours" as the dancers went about the business of not only making a name for themselves but of exploring the black American experience through motion.

Since then, it has performed in 71 countries on six continents and is recognized as a U.S. cultural ambassador. The troupe is considered by many to be one of the world's most successful modern dance organizations. And with a hefty $55 million endowment and an impressive headquarters in Manhattan, Alvin Ailey has arrived, so to speak. That's a long way to have come for an organization, started by a dancer raised in poverty and in segregated conditions in Texas.

"Ailey was one of the pioneers of making dance so accessible. Mr. Ailey decided we weren't dancing in a vacuum," Jamison said.

In other words, for Ailey's dancers, it's not just about what happens onstage.

"The Alvin Ailey dancers are dancing from a spiritual place that has to do with giving back and not just showing off," Jamison said. "These dancers are transcending their bodies. That's why they are able to do such incredible things."

"You're changed [afterward]. You don't come in and go out the same way. That's not the point," she said. "Alvin used to say, 'I love to uplift, entertain and educate.' "

Ailey, who died of AIDS in 1989, was interested not just in his dancers' physical abilities, but in the individuals themselves, because "it's from your honesty . . . it's about your understanding that there's nobody like you in the world," Jamison pointed out. "That goes for everybody, that we are unique - and that we have a creative light in us."

I asked Jamison, a Philly native who earlier this year announced plans to retire in 2011, what's next for her. How does the 64-year-old dancer see herself living out a retirement?

"My head has been there for a long time," said Jamison, who was discovered by Agnes de Mille before she joined Ailey back in 1965. "I'm attached to Ailey at the hip. I will always be a presence here." *

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce streets, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, $24-$70, 215-893-1999.