In a ma­jor cul­tur­al mile­stone for the Caribbean, T&T will host the glob­al­ly cel­e­brat­ed Alvin Ai­ley II dance com­pa­ny for the first time this Au­gust. Known as The Next Gen­er­a­tion of Dance, Ai­ley II is set to per­form its ac­claimed reper­toire—in­clud­ing Alvin Ai­ley’s time­less mas­ter­piece Rev­e­la­tions—at Queen’s Hall on Au­gust 27, 2025.

This mo­men­tous per­for­mance is ex­pect­ed to up­lift, in­spire, and trans­form.

Pre­sent­ed by Plié for the Arts in part­ner­ship with the Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the event marks the com­pa­ny’s Caribbean de­but out­side of Ja­maica. It al­so sig­nals a new era of artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tion across the re­gion.

Ai­ley II, found­ed in 1974 by leg­endary chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Alvin Ai­ley, merges the en­er­gy of the coun­try’s most promis­ing ear­ly-ca­reer dancers with the cre­ative pow­er of emerg­ing chore­o­g­ra­phers.

Un­der the artis­tic di­rec­tion of Francesca Harp­er, the com­pa­ny con­tin­ues Ai­ley’s pi­o­neer­ing mis­sion to make dance ac­ces­si­ble to all. Crit­ics from The New York­er have praised the com­pa­ny for its “off-the-charts en­er­gy,” while The New York Times de­scribes it as “sec­ond to none.”

“To­day marks the an­niver­sary of Alvin Ai­ley’s first per­for­mance on March 30, 1958, when he and a group of young Black mod­ern dancers de­buted at New York’s 92nd Street YM-YWHA as Alvin Ai­ley and Com­pa­ny,” a re­lease from the or­gan­is­ers stat­ed.

“That mo­ment ig­nit­ed a cul­tur­al shift that re­shaped Amer­i­can mod­ern dance and el­e­vat­ed Black artistry glob­al­ly. Near­ly sev­en decades lat­er, the ar­rival of Ai­ley II in Trinidad and To­ba­go car­ries for­ward that lega­cy—bridg­ing gen­er­a­tions, tran­scend­ing bor­ders, and bring­ing Ai­ley’s trans­for­ma­tive vi­sion to the Caribbean stage.”

This per­for­mance will be the head­line event of AMAL­GA­MA­TION 2025, a cross-Caribbean ini­tia­tive by Plié for the Arts to pro­vide world-class ex­po­sure, pro­fes­sion­al men­tor­ship, and schol­ar­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties to re­gion­al dancers. Ai­ley II’s pres­ence in T&T will in­clude free mas­ter class­es, work­shops, and dance talk sem­i­nars in Trinidad, cre­at­ing un­prece­dent­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal dancers, teach­ers, and chore­o­g­ra­phers.

“We be­lieve that giv­ing Caribbean artistes di­rect ac­cess to glob­al pro­fes­sion­als who are liv­ing their dreams al­lows them to en­vi­sion a fu­ture in which they too can ex­cel at the high­est lev­el,” said Marisa Be­nain, founder and artis­tic di­rec­tor of Plié for the Arts.

“Bring­ing Alvin Ai­ley II to Trinidad and To­ba­go is more than a show—it’s a step for­ward for our en­tire cre­ative ecosys­tem.”

Since its in­cep­tion in 2016, AMAL­GA­MA­TION has op­er­at­ed pri­mar­i­ly from Ja­maica. This 2025 stag­ing ex­pands its foot­print, turn­ing a long-held dream in­to re­al­i­ty by bring­ing to­geth­er Caribbean is­lands.

Alette Liz Williams, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, shared the sig­nif­i­cance of the col­lab­o­ra­tion, “The Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go is ho­n­oured to stand along­side Plié for the Arts in wel­com­ing the il­lus­tri­ous Alvin Ai­ley II to our shores ...

“Part­ner­ships of this cal­i­bre sig­nal the be­gin­ning of what we en­vi­sion as a new move­ment: one that con­nects our artistes to world-class in­sti­tu­tions, cul­ti­vates life­long path­ways in the arts, and af­firms the Caribbean’s place in the glob­al dance con­ver­sa­tion.”

Both en­ti­ties are hop­ing that this can be the spark to es­tab­lish a re­gion­al Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing with the Alvin Ai­ley or­gan­i­sa­tion—an ini­tia­tive that could se­cure long-term de­vel­op­men­tal op­por­tu­ni­ties, schol­ar­ships, and ex­change pro­grammes for Caribbean artists.

Whether you are a dance lover, ed­u­ca­tor, artist, pol­i­cy­mak­er, or cul­tur­al en­thu­si­ast, this is an event not to miss.

For more in­for­ma­tion, fol­low @pliefort­heart­s­ja and @nda.tt_org on In­sta­gram or vis­it ndatt.org/events.