Status of the ALICE experiment at the LHC

The status of the ALICE experiment is presented. ALICE is the LHC experiment devoted to heavy ion collisions. Preparing for the first lead-lead run, foreseen in November 2010, ALICE is successfully collecting data in proton-proton collisions at the LHC since November 2009, exploiting the charateristics of the detector for its proton-proton physics program. First results are briefly reviewed with an emphasis on performance of its detector sub-systems.