1: Revelations 1962 -- Why revelations worked -- BREAK Black modernism -- Situating revelations in African American cultural life -- 2: Early dances -- Ailey's childhood: race matters -- BREAK Unquenchable racial desire -- Blues suite -- Ailey's early dances -- Hermit songs -- 3: Early company -- Early years in New York -- Early residencies -- Southeast Asia tour -- BREAK "Official" African American culture -- Riedaiglia -- 4: Revelations II: 1969 -- BREAK Versioning -- Multiracial concert dance -- Revelations 1975 -- 5: Touring, touring, touring -- Quintet -- Swelling popularity -- BREAK Jazz dance -- Flowers -- The popular audience -- BREAK No exit from racism -- 6: Reflecting a spectrum of experience -- Masekela language -- The lark ascending -- Hidden rites -- 7: Other dances -- Feast of ashes -- BREAK Black dancer, white dance -- The river -- 8: Ailey celebrates Ellington -- The Ellington connection -- BREAK Heroes -- Ailey celebrates Ellington -- Pas de "Duke" -- Ellingtonia -- 9: Gender and spectatorship -- Cry -- Love songs -- Masked spectatorship: Ailey's representation of sexuality -- BREAK Sex -- Streams -- BREAK Black Atlantic dance -- 10: Later dances -- Memoria -- Au Bord du Precipice -- Survivors -- BREAK Alvin Ailey, public and private -- 11: Concluding moves -- The Ailey after Ailey -- Revelations 2003.