Dance and culture fans of the DMV might have been taken aback when the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater announced in May that the company would skip their annual run at the Kennedy Center this year. Officially, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater — like Seattle Children’s and Martha Graham — has stated a desire to return to the Kennedy Center in the future. “We’ve had a relationship with the Warner for many years,” says Alicia Graf Mack, Alvin Ailey’s artistic director, just months into her first season leading the world-renowned outfit. Roberts, a longtime performer with Alvin Ailey, who then transitioned into becoming an internationally acclaimed choreographer, was also Graf Mack’s partner when they were dancing. As Graf Mack puts it, “the vision of this new era is always to honor the legacy from which we come and innovate upon it.