Crowds heading to the City Center for Judith Jamison's farewell program packed 55th Street in New York City Sunday night. While the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater draws a huge audience every December for its monthlong engagement, this occasion attracted twice as many fans as usual. "I wouldn't have missed it," one woman said to her companion, who had flown in from out of town. "Aren't you crazy about Ailey?" another asked. "I just had to say thank you to Judi," explained one man, standing in the long line to pick up tickets.

In the theater lobby, members of the audience, glamorous in party dress, mingled with friends and Ailey staff and artists from past and present, like Carmen de Lavallade, Orlando Bagwell, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Sweet Honey in the Rock's Louise Robinson, Carol Maillard, dancer Desmond Richardson and choreographer Dwight Rhoden. The Rev. Calvin Butts, André Leon Talley, Ashford and Simpson, Dr. Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson and jazz pianist Eric Lewis were also in attendance. The buzz was so great that the announcement urging everyone to take his or her seat could hardly be heard.

Inside the theater, as the lights dimmed, the audience burst into applause, the historic importance of the evening palpable. Robert Battle, who will officially become artistic director in July, stepped in front of the red curtain. "How nice," he said, smiling and looking dapper, acknowledging the enthusiastic reception. "It's such an important moment for such an important lady." He quoted from a poem by Mari Evans, learned from his mother, which for him evoked Jamison:

I am a black woman
tall as a cypress
strong
beyond all definition still
defying place

and time
and circumstance
assailed
impervious
indestructible. Look
on me and be
renewed.

Cheers went up. It was time for the party to begin.