Judith Jamison, a renowned performer and choreographer who devoted much of her dance career to the pioneering Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has died.

Jamison died Saturday after a brief illness, the company said. announcement in a statement on social media. She was 81 years old. “We remember and are grateful for his artistry, his humanity and his incredible light, which inspired us all,” the company statement added.

Debbie Allen and Misty Copeland, black dance pioneers in their own right, paid tribute to Jamison on social media this weekend. “I owe you so much for seeing me and letting me know I could go through with this,” Allen wrote on Instagram.

She added: “I will always honor you and remember all the great moments we shared. It has been a blessing to be in your orbit.

Copeland, principal dancer with American Ballet Theater said Jamison’s contributions to dance left a “lasting mark on our world”; she praised the choreographer for her legacy, which she said will “continue to shape the future of dance.” Also the Dance Theater of Harlem cry “the icon and the legend”.

Jamison began dancing for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1965, a year after meeting the company’s namesake during an unsuccessful television audition. Ailey was Jamison’s “spirit walker, my mentor and supporter.” Under his tutelage, she left her mark on the world of dance with her grace, her long limbs and her magnetic presence. Most notably, she performed Ailey’s 1971 solo “Cry,” in which she bent, stretched and hung in a long-sleeved white leotard and matching long, ruffled skirt.

“In my interpretation, she represented those women before her who survived the trials of slavery, the pain of losing loved ones, overcoming extraordinary depressions and tribulations,” Jamison wrote in her autobiography “Dancing Spirit” . “Coming out of a world of pain and turmoil, she found her way and triumphed.”

An undated photo of Judith Jamison performing Alvin Ailey’s “Cry.”

(Jack Mitchell/Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and Smithsonian Institution via Associated Press)

Jamison flourished during her 15 years as a company dancer. She often appeared as a guest artist in companies around the world and performed memorable pieces, including 1976’s “Pas de Duke” with ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Although she left the company in 1980, Jamison continued choreographing with Ailey’s support. She choreographed her first dance, “Divining,” for the company in 1984. She brought her work to Washington Ballet and collaborated with choreographers Maurice Béjart and Jennifer Muller/The Works.

The Broadway world also appreciated Jamison’s talents as she starred in the Duke Ellington revue “Sophisticated Ladies” in 1981. The original cast also included influential tap star Gregory Hines, Tony winner Hinton Battle and singer Phyllis Hyman.

In 1988, Jamison started her own company in her hometown of Philadelphia, but a year later she returned to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Ailey considered Jamison her successor, naming her artistic director of the company in 1989. Ailey died of a blood disease in December 1989. He was 58 years old.

“He said, ‘I’m not well; you know I’m sick and I’d like you to take over the business,” Jamison recalled to The Times in 2010. “I said, ‘Sure, sure, Alvin.’ That was all. The decision to do so was instantaneous.

During his tenure, Jamison led the Ailey company through considerable growth to a remarkable level of stability, through extensive touring. According to the company, Jamison oversaw two engagements in South Africa and a 50-city global tour commemorating the company’s 50th anniversary.

Jamison also presented Ailey’s “Revelations” (where she impressed as a woman holding a white parasol) at the White House in 2010. At the time, first lady Michelle Obama hailed Jamison as a “flying woman incredible and phenomenal.”

“I am continuing what Alvin started. And what I wanted to do was expand it, make it bigger, and certainly not make people forget who this man was, what he did for the world of dance, what a great breadth of intelligence and of beauty, and a different way of seeing in movement and sharing the stage,” Jamison told the Times in 2010. “He has just blazed a great trail for all of us to pursue our individual and collective goals.” »

Jamison, born May 19, 1943, retired as artistic director in 2011. She chose choreographer Robert Battle as her successor and served as artistic director emeritus of the company until her death.

Throughout her career, Jamison has been open about the discrimination she and her black colleagues at the company faced early on. She said The Times in 2019“We couldn’t actually get decent food because it wasn’t served to us,” adding that he had previously been served “sour milk and cold coffee.” Black dancers, Jamison said, still face discrimination — even if “it happens in more subtle ways.”

“It’s still very difficult to sort out our history as African Americans and black dancers,” she said in 2019. “That’s part of what’s so important about celebrating 60 years of ‘Alvin Ailey, because we are always here to tell the truth about what he had in mind.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.