Exclusive Interview | Alvin Ailey | Where Are They Now
The Next Generation of Alvin Ailey: Where Are They Now?
In 2013, Dance Mogul Magazine sat down with three young dancers carrying Alvin Ailey's legacy forward. More than a decade later, we trace where their journeys have taken them — and what the next generation can learn from the road they walked.
By Dance Mogul Magazine | Originally featured April 2013 | Updated and expanded 2026
Ailey II dancers. Photo Credit: Eduardo Patino
Where They Are Now — 2026 Snapshot
The three young artists DMM featured in 2013 have each grown into leaders. Gentry Isaiah George founded and directs ZEST Collective and teaches at Miami's New World School of the Arts. Daphne Lee became a company member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, earned an MFA, and was crowned Miss Black USA. Thomas Varvaro danced with Elisa Monte Dance and now shapes new dancers as faculty at Broadway Dance Center. Ailey II itself, once led by Troy Powell, is now guided by Artistic Director Francesca Harper.
Every institution that lasts learns the same lesson: legacy is not a monument, it is a relay. Somebody has to be handed the baton, and somebody has to run. When Dance Mogul Magazine sat down with a group of Ailey II dancers in the spring of 2013, we were watching that hand-off happen in real time — young artists still in their early twenties, fresh out of conservatory, stepping into a lineage built by one of the most important choreographers America has ever produced.
Back then, they generously broke down their training, their work ethic, and their advice for the dancers coming up behind them. We preserve that original conversation below, word for word, exactly as it appeared. Then we pick the story back up more than a decade later — because the most powerful part of any "next generation" story is what actually happens next.
The Original 2013 Feature
Alvin Ailey II is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country's best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today's most outstanding emerging choreographers. Founded in 1974, the company embodies Mr. Ailey's pioneering mission to establish an extended cultural community that provides dance performances, training, and community programs for all people. Under the direction of Sylvia Waters, Ailey II flourished into one of the most popular dance companies in the county. With new Artistic Director Troy Powell at the helm, Ailey II will continue to thrive as he brings a fresh dimension to this beloved company.
Dance Mogul Magazine had the honor to sit down with some of the Alvin Ailey II dancers as they took us on their journey through dance. The dancers were kind enough to break down their work ethic and offer words of wisdom to encourage the next generation that will be living out Alvin Ailey's Legacy. Special Thanks to Gentry, Daphne, and Thomas.
"The dancers were kind enough to break down their work ethic and offer words of wisdom to encourage the next generation that will be living out Alvin Ailey's Legacy."
GENTRY GEORGE (Miami, FL) began his dance training with Linda Agyapong, founder of The Community Book and Dance Academy. He studied extensively with Peter London before graduating from New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. Mr. George also trained with the artistic director of Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Vladimir Issaev, and was a scholarship student at The Ailey School, The School at Jacob's Pillow, and Thomas Armour Youth Ballet. He is a recipient of a Level 1 ARTS award given by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and is featured on HBO's "Masterclass." In May 2012, Mr. George graduated from The Juilliard School. This is his first season with Ailey II.
Daphne Lee (Rahway, NJ) began her dance training at the Rahway Dance Theatre under the direction of Ms. Jay Skeete-Lee. She is currently a senior in the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program and is a recipient of the Denise Jefferson Scholarship award. Ms. Lee received scholarships to Jacobs Pillow, Boston Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem and is a regional gold medal recipient in dance for the NAACP ACT-SO competition. Ms. Lee performed works by Robert Battle, Elisa Monte, Scott Rink, Nathan Trice, and Andrea Miller. She has danced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and was a cast member in the sixth season of Dance212's online reality series. This is her first year with Ailey II.
THOMAS VARVARO (Brooklyn, NY) began his formal dance training with The Ailey School as a Junior Division student at age 11. He is a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. In addition, he has studied at The School of American Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet School. In 2010, Mr. Varvaro attended The School at Jacob's Pillow's contemporary program. He was a member of Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre during the fall 2010 season and is currently a senior in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in dance. This is Mr. Varvaro's second season with Ailey II.
Photo Credit: Eduardo Patino
The Company Behind the Dancers
To understand why a first season with Ailey II is such a milestone, you have to understand the machine these dancers stepped into. Alvin Ailey Jr. founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 to honor African-American cultural expression and, in his own words, to preserve the universality of the human experience through dance. His signature work, Revelations, premiered in 1960 and remains one of the most-performed and most-beloved works in American concert dance — a piece that has introduced more people to modern dance than almost any other.
Ailey II — founded in 1974 as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble — is the company's bridge between the school and the main stage. It exists specifically to carry early-career dancers across the hardest gap in the profession: the leap from student to working artist. Sylvia Waters, hand-picked by Alvin Ailey himself, led that mission for 38 seasons and built Ailey II into one of the most popular touring companies in the country. When DMM's interview ran in 2013, Troy Powell had just taken the artistic reins. That detail matters, because it shows how quickly the relay moves — the "new" leadership of one era becomes the history of the next.
Today, Ailey II is more than fifty years old and led by Artistic Director Francesca Harper, who brings fresh choreographic voices to the company while protecting the foundation Ailey laid. The company continues its rigorous world tour and remains, as it always has been, a launchpad. Which brings us to the three artists we met in 2013.
Where Are They Now?
Gentry Isaiah George did not wait for permission to build something of his own. The same year DMM featured him, he founded ZEST Collective, a contemporary performance company rooted in the Inwood / Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He has since become a choreographer, educator, and a published poet, creating commissioned work for the Guggenheim's Works & Process series, Peter London Global Dance Company, and The Juilliard School, among others. Beyond ZEST, his performing career carried him through Dance Theatre of Harlem, Lustig Dance Theatre, and Collage Dance Collective. Today he passes the craft forward as a member of the dance faculty at New World School of the Arts — the very Miami institution that trained him.
Daphne Lee turned her "first year with Ailey II" into a career that reads like a blueprint for a modern dance artist. She became a company member of the historic Dance Theatre of Harlem, danced with Collage Dance Collective, Oakland Ballet, and the Black Iris Project — where she performed the role of Winnie Mandela in the ballet MADIBA at the Kennedy Center. She earned an MFA from Hollins University, built a choreographic résumé spanning the Joffrey Concert Group and the University of Alabama, and was crowned Miss Black USA in 2017, using the platform to raise scholarship funds and mentor young dancers. Longtime DMM readers may remember that Daphne also graced the cover of a past edition of this very magazine — a full-circle moment we're proud of.
"Keep that fire going. Ignore the rejection and the setbacks, and continue on your journey. With a little faith, a little goal and a little direction, you can make it."
— Daphne Lee, on becoming a professional dancer
Thomas Varvaro completed his time with Ailey II from 2011 to 2013, a run that included performing on So You Think You Can Dance Poland and Dancing With The Stars Bulgaria, and appearing with the main Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during its New York City Center season. He went on to join Elisa Monte Dance and performed with the Francesca Harper Project, Urban Ballet Theater, and Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater. Varvaro now teaches at Broadway Dance Center, where his contemporary modern class fuses Ailey, Graham, and Balanchine influences — "Balanchine in the legs and Graham in the upper body and torso," as he describes it. His journey continues in DMM's companion profile, Thomas Varvaro: The Next Generation of Ballet.
Three dancers, three completely different paths — a company founder, a ballet-company member and titleholder, and a working artist turned educator. What they share is the thing that mattered most in 2013 and matters most now: they kept going.
Why It Matters to Dance Mogul Magazine
Dance Mogul Magazine has always believed that dance is the foundation, not the ceiling. This story is exactly why. Look at where these three ended up: one runs a company, one leads through a pageant crown and community fundraising, one shapes the next wave from the front of a studio. Dance opened those doors — but discipline, character, and the refusal to quit are what walked them through.
When DMM chose in 2013 to give young, not-yet-famous dancers a voice, it was a deliberate act. We do not wait for artists to become celebrities before we treat their stories as worthy. We document people while they are still climbing, because the climb is where the wisdom lives. Revisiting this feature more than a decade later confirms the bet: give the next generation a microphone, and they will tell you exactly how legacy gets built. You can explore more of these conversations in our Exclusive Interviews archive and across the Dance Styles Hub.
What the Next Generation Should Learn
If you are a young dancer reading this, the trajectories on this page contain a curriculum. Here is what they teach.
Lessons From the Next Generation of Ailey
1. Build your own table. Gentry George didn't wait to be handed a career — he founded ZEST Collective the same year he was still a first-season company member. If a door doesn't open, build the room.
2. Let dance carry you into other rooms. Daphne Lee added an MFA, a national title, and a fundraising platform to her artistry. Your training is a passport, not a cage.
3. The teacher is the final form of the student. Thomas Varvaro and Gentry George both became educators. The deepest way to honor those who trained you is to train someone else.
4. Rejection is part of the route, not a roadblock. As Daphne Lee put it, ignore the setbacks and keep the fire going. Every artist on this page heard "no" and kept moving anyway.
Alvin Ailey built an institution designed to hand itself forward — from Ailey to Sylvia Waters, from Waters to Troy Powell, from Powell to Francesca Harper, and from every one of them to the dancers who pass through Ailey II and out into the world. The three young artists DMM met in 2013 are now part of that chain. Someday, dancers they teach will be featured in stories like this one. That is how a legacy stays alive — not by being remembered, but by being continued.
Continue Your Journey
Explore more stories of dancers carrying the culture forward across the Dance Styles Hub.
• Thomas Varvaro: The Next Generation of Ballet — one of the dancers from this feature, in his own words
• Paige Fraser: The Next Generation of Ailey — another rising Ailey voice DMM championed early
• Exclusive Interviews — more first-hand conversations with the artists shaping dance
• Join the Dance Mogul Community — connect with the global dance community
The Story Continues
The most honest thing about a "next generation" feature is that there is always another one coming. The dancers who were the future in 2013 are, in many ways, the foundation now — teaching, directing, and mentoring the artists who will fill the pages of Dance Mogul Magazine ten years from today.
That is the promise DMM makes to every young artist we feature: your story matters before the world decides it does. We will keep documenting the climb, keep returning to see how it turned out, and keep reminding the next dancer in line that the game never changes — only the players. Gentry, Daphne, and Thomas ran their leg of the relay. The baton is already in someone else's hand.
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