In 1984, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison created Divining, on a major company for the first time at the request of her mentor, Alvin Ailey. Jamison wrote in her autobiography, Dancing Spirit, "Divining is mysterious, its title suggesting a search or quest." The ritualized ballet is set to a score that incorporates North African, Central African and Latin rhythms.

"The African-inspired rhythms are also Ms. Jamison’s springboard. Divining suggests an abstraction of African dance here refracted into reductive modern-dance treatment. Ms. Jamison’s perspective comes from the avant-garde, her images are streamlined, clean and striking!...Ms. Jamison knows how to make movement flow through the entire body."
-Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times

This ballet is also performed in excerpt.