Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Lincoln Center season begins June 14, and in light of the birth centennials for jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, Ailey is focusing on the music.

Opening night will feature a pre-show community jazz event on the Lincoln Center plaza, and four decades of Dizzy Gillespie’s brilliant music will be the foundation for a sizzling ballet  celebrating  Gillespie as the consummate jazz musician.

“Ella,” a ballet  created by Ailey’s artistic director Robert Battle, is set to Ella Fitzgerald’s virtuosic scatting in “Air Mail Special.”

We all know music makes you want to dance, but here’s how genius musicians make genius dancers move.

Photos by Christopher Duggan