Legendary choreographer/dance instructor Alvin Ailey was arrested for assault today (March 8, 1980).
The instructor, who work with famous singers like Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey and others, was busted at International House, which was a residence for graduate students at Columbia University.
Ailey was arrested for disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and harassment, for trying to force his way into a building, in search of a friend who was living there at the time.
A few months later in May, Alvin Ailey was arrested again, at his Central Park West apartment, after he was heard running through the hallway shouting “fire, get out, there’s a fire in the building.”
He then forced his way into another woman’s apartment, took some objects from her and assaulted her.
Alvin Ailey was later hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital for a short period of time and released.
Alvin Ailey, who formed the legendary Alvin Ailey American dance theater in 1958, died from AIDS on December 1, 1989.
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