Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey revives a coveted concert, renews its goal to diversify dance

It’s been years since New York City's Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed in Kansas City. The Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, a nonprofit dance school, hopes this year's revived performance will help expand access in the metro to the art of dance.
On a dreary morning last week, a fleet of yellow school buses lined the streets around the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts. Around 1,000 students from K-12 schools in Kansas and Missouri, herded by teachers into organized lines, flooded into the theater.

Some were dressed to the nines — spring dresses and suits — for the occasion. They were about to be the first Kansas City audience in six years to watch the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.