Seventy five percent of all the students that take dance at the Ailey School go on to be a member of one of the Ailey Companies, but it requires hard work. Auditions are held for level placement, and programs are offered to youngsters as young as 3 years old, pre-teens, teens and college-aged students who can benefit from a special new program that is offered with Fordham University where dancers can earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Dancers have to take classes at least 4 times a week. Many hours are devoted to this art. The ultimate goals for dancers at the Ailey School include the opportunity to dance in Ailey II, the main Company, or be chosen to dance with another professional company. Since dance is so demanding, for some dancers their life's priority, there often remains little time to do school work. Many serious dancers go to professional schools, where they are offered a looser schedule of homework, projects and assignments. "At some point, we may have to organize a tutorial correspondence course for some of our high school students who may not be able to afford to go to a professional children's school," Ms. Jefferson told me. The Ailey School really prides itself on its total commitment to its dancers. They offer more outreach programs for their dancers than any other school of dance. They deeply care about their dancers' emotional and physical well being. To that end, they offer nutritional counseling, physical therapists, and a psychologist to work with the dancers so that they can avoid stress and feel well while they dance. As a student at the Ailey School for the past year, it's been so exciting to be with other people who have such amazing talent. I take a train to New York City and then a subway to the school 4 days a week. I often dread taking the train back and forth to Greenwich, but when I get to the school, I immediately feel swept up by the experience of being there, even though I know I won't get home to Greenwich until late. As a member of the school, it has been easy for me to recognize who has the Ailey style. The Ailey style is different from any other dance company's style. It is spiritual, and technically very exciting. When the male dancers leave the floor for a jump, viewers hold their breath, wondering whether they will ever return to the ground. The whole performance is like that. Ailey satisfies the audiences of today who want to see things that are exciting, things that they have never seen before. When I found out that TeenSpeak could get me an interview with the Director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Judith Jamison, I was overwhelmed.