Denise Jefferson | Ailey dance director, 65

Denise Jefferson, 65, an internationally known dance educator who as the longtime director of the Ailey School oversaw the training of generations of world-class performers, died Saturday.

The cause was ovarian cancer, according to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, of which the Ailey School is the official training academy.

A member of the Ailey School faculty since 1974, Ms. Jefferson was its director from 1984 until her death.

With Judith Jamison, the company's artistic director, and Sylvia Waters, the artistic director of Ailey II, its junior ensemble, Ms. Jefferson was one of the triumvirate charged with continuing the work of Alvin Ailey, the dancer and choreographer who founded the company in 1958 and ran it until his death in 1989.

Under her stewardship, the school grew from 125 pupils to a student body of more than 3,500 dancers from around the world and a faculty of 75.

Many have gone on to careers with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and the Ailey company itself, among other troupes.

Ms. Jefferson was also known for helping to create a degree program, run jointly by the Ailey School and Fordham University, in which dancers can earn a bachelor of fine arts at the university's Lincoln Center campus.

- N.Y. Times News Service