Joan Weill Center for Dance
405 West 55th Street | also 841 9th Avenue | Hell's Kitchen | built 2003
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1923
John Armstrong Chaloner's 1,568-seat silent-movie theater opens at Ninth Avenue and 55th Street
The corner now occupied by the Ailey building first held the Chaloner Theater at 841 Ninth Avenue. George Keister designed it for John Armstrong Chaloner, the Astor-related writer known for the catchphrase "Who's looney now?", and it opened in 1923 with 1,568 seats for silent films. A 1939 sale brought a cut to 1,000 seats and a new name, the Town Theatre. This is an earlier building on the lot.
“…decorated by 'Winter & Raub', for John Armstrong Chaloner, and opened in 1923, with 1568 seats, for silent movies, at 841 Ninth Avenue…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
Alvin Ailey's Revelations premieres at the 92nd Street Y, the signature piece of the company now based here
Ailey and several young Black modern dancers first took the stage as Alvin Ailey and Company at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA on March 30, 1958. His Revelations had its premiere at the same venue on January 31, 1960, and audiences took to it immediately. The company that performs it has made 405 West 55th Street its home since 2005.
Source: ailey.org
- 1961
CBS donates its Ninth Avenue studio to educational TV, which makes it WNET's Studio 55
CBS leased the Town Theatre after it closed in July 1950, pulled out all the seats and ran it as CBS Studio 58. CBS gave the building away in 1961 to Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area, which made it WNET Channel 13's Studio 55, where the show Critique was made. As Unitel Video Studio 55 it became a second home for Sesame Street and hosted The Dick Cavett Show and Emeril Live before demolition in November 2002. This is an earlier building on the lot.
“In 1961, CBS donated the building to Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area, becoming WNET Channel 13's Studio 55…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1970
Ailey's company spends six weeks touring the Soviet Union, a first since Isadora Duncan's day
In 1970 the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater set out on a six-week tour of the USSR. By the company's own timeline, no American modern dance company had made such a trip since the days of Isadora Duncan. Today the company, founded by Ailey in 1958, works from the Joan Weill Center on West 55th Street.
Source: ailey.org
- 2002
Ailey breaks ground on West 55th Street midway through a $66 million campaign for a building of its own
In 2000 the Ailey organization began the quiet phase of a five-year, $66 million campaign for a building that would double its space and for an endowment. Ground was broken on the West 55th Street site two years later. Joan Weill, who chaired the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation board for fourteen years, shared the campaign chair with her husband Sandy, and together they gave $18 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
The Joan Weill Center for Dance opens on the site of the old WNET studios
Iu + Bibliowicz Architects designed the Joan Weill Center for Dance, which opened in March 2005 at 405 West 55th Street, at Ninth Avenue. Ailey says the building occupies the lot of the old WNET-TV studios, where its company first appeared on television in the early 1960s. It has a flexible performance space that seats up to 275 and is named for Joan H. Weill, honoring her and Sandy Weill's decades of commitment to the company.
Source: ailey.org
- 2008
Ailey kicks off its 50th-anniversary year with festivities at the Weill Center
On March 27, 2008, the Ailey organization began marking its 50th year at the Joan Weill Center for Dance with festivities that drew wide media coverage. The anniversary year also brought a sold-out week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in June, free classes and performances in all five boroughs in August, and in November a Barbie doll inspired by the company.
Source: ailey.org
- 2008
Glorya Kaufman gives $6 million to Ailey's education programs, and the Weill Center's fifth-floor lobby bears her name
In 2008 the donor Glorya Kaufman gave six million dollars to the Ailey organization's educational work, including AileyCamp, the Ailey School and a bachelor of fine arts program run with Fordham University. The lobby on the fifth floor of the Joan Weill Center for Dance is named for her.
“Glorya Kaufman donated six million dollars to AAADT's educational programs, including support for AileyCamp programs, the Ailey School, and a BFA program with Fordham University.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Joan Weill retires as chairwoman as a $40 million campaign is launched to expand the building
On November 13, 2014, the Ailey company announced a campaign gift of more than $40 million honoring Joan Weill, who was retiring after 14 years leading the foundation as chairwoman. The Campaign for Ailey's Future would pay for more studios and educational space at the building. Her husband, Sanford Weill, had pledged over $16 million, and Elaine Wynn's family foundation $5 million.
Source: archive.nytimes.com
- 2017
The Elaine Wynn & Family Education Wing adds three floors and four studios to the center
Ailey dedicated a new 10,000-square-foot addition on the west side of the Joan Weill Center on October 18, 2017, naming it the Elaine Wynn & Family Education Wing. The addition stacked three new floors onto the building and provided four more dance studios, bringing the total to 16. The wing is named for the philanthropist Elaine Wynn and her family.
Source: ailey.org
- 2021
Ailey's companies return to rehearsals at the Weill Center after a pandemic hiatus
In 2021, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II went back into the studios of the Joan Weill Center for Dance after a hiatus caused by COVID-19. During 2020 the organization had reached audiences online through Ailey All Access, a streaming platform of full-length ballets, classes and short films. In summer 2021 the company danced at the first BAAND Together festival in Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park.
Source: ailey.org
Further reading
- Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterWikipedia
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