The book, recently published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, contains images by top photographers, a forward by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, and text by dance historian and former dancer Robert Tracy.

Tracy, the author of Goddess: Martha Graham's Dancers Remember and coauthor of Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses and Spaces of the Mind: Isamu Noguchi's Dance Designs, drew on unpublished interviews with more than 50 people associated with the company's 45-year history in writing Ailey Spirit.

AAADT was founded in 1958 by the Texas-born Ailey, who had studied with Graham and with Lester Horton, founder of the first racially integrated dance company in the country. Over the course of its long history, AAADT has been devoted to the advancement of modern dance and black cultural expression.

The company recently saw the opening of the new $54 million Joan Weill Center for Dance, which houses rehearsal studios and company administration.