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This engagement provided a glimpse of a range of Ailey's choreography. I first saw Ailey's marvelous Feast of Ashes for the Joffrey Ballet when that company was underwritten by Rebeckah Harkness, a ballet crying for revival. Revelations is a perennial, as body-warming now as when premiered. Last year, in two works done by other choreographers, what impressed most was the quality of the dancers,the company's extraordinary degree of professionalism and the ability to communicate, even in so-so material.

The year 2003 saw three new works created for the company by Robert Battle, Alonzo King and Dwight Rhoden. With excerpts from several Ailey's works for comparison, it seems current African-American choreographers have a near impossible task to stand equal with similar humanity. Their formative exposure from a different place, I feel for them. They seem to slice the large pie of technology and technique, insight and frequently humanity checked in the cloak room.

Alonzo King's practice of utilizing unusual music, played by marvelous musicians, live or taped, was present in Heartsong. The Ailey dancers gave the King movement style a wonderful grounding without pointe shoes. It also revealed movement cliches consistently used in Kings ballets; shoulder/arm circles like birds starting to take wing, a quality similar to arm movements in buck and wing tap routines; the back torso imbalance before some phrases, very funny in a comic situation; the averted eye contact in sharp contrast for dancers whose style is so clearly one of communication with audience and fellow dancers. There were one or two sequences owing genesis to an earlier King work to Zakir Hussein's music, Who Dressed You As A Stranger?

Treading, Elisa Monte's choreographic debut, showed its debt not only to the music's symmetry, but to the principles of tension and composition used in the late 70s; beginning, middle, end - ABA composition, with some distinct references to the Adam's rib, and the contrasting method of human birth: tight construction, comprehensible, well performed.

Revelations is a cult experience, a deserved American classic, a paean to the spirit, rising above and beyond trial and tribulation, from the wing-like tribal formation in I've Been Buked; the falls and contractions in Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel; the earnest, tricky pas de deux in Fix Me, Jesus. There is the Processional which segues into Wade in the Water, the white umbrella floating above the figures, to the gorgeous solo I Wanna Be Ready, performed with intense drama by Guillermo Asca and with utter symmetry March 13 by Jeffry Geordias. Sinner Man never lacks urgency, men running with fugitive conviction. Clyde Archer in both performances, led Clifton Brown and Samuel Deshauteurs March 12 with Jamar Roberts, Clyde Archer and Dion Wilson March 13, lighting and projections reflecting ante-bellum attempts to reach freedom. Then the finale, Rocka My Soul, an ovation-rousing event for dancer and audience, which commences rhythmic clapping, responding to the women who dialog deliciously with their fans while settling into their seats, the men in their elegant vests swooping forward and back between the stools and women congregants festive with their yellow pancake hats. In all the times I have seen the work, this response has never failed. The audience anticipates being roused, to releasing the feeling this extraordinary work continues to evoke and the durable excellence with which Ailey's company performs it.

Ailey's essay to Duke Ellington's music conveys the sophisticated African American experience as entertainer, subtle in its showman chic where timing and form showcases the personality, the gifts of performer and ensemble.

For Bird With Love was a highlight close to Revelations in its understanding of African-American life, here musical and urban, a tribute not only the jazz greats, but illumined by Coleridge-Taylor Parkinson's talents(his obituary appeared recently in the NY Times. The playful musicians, the nightclub style and habit, the interplay with the women,secondary but necessary foils for the cock of the walk antics of the musicians, are bested perhaps only by a toreador in his prime. Remembering St. Louis Woman with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Michael Smuin could Benefit by Ailey's take on African American night life.

Dwight Rhoden's Bounty Verses provided some glamorous lighting effects for duets, trios and solo passages, filtered spots from above, rather than above the heads of the audience. Mostly in twos, a man and woman, enter, display an antagonistic attraction with partnering, then depart; another woman or man arrives on the scene with a new variation of the same. The women give as good as they get, so the energy is definitely charged and scarcely tender.

If Rhoden wanted to convey fragmented, dissatisfied nature of today's relationships, he has succeeded admirably. In his choreography the sensuous and sexual are clear and well handled, not a sylph in the lot. In the music, which lists Bach, Steve Reich, Vivaldi and Beethoven as part of the collage, I listened vainly for an appreciable tone or recognizable phrase. No luck whatsoever.

Judith Jamison's Hymn with text by Anne Devere Smith includes excerpts from an interview with Alvin Ailey, comments by Jamison about her succession as artistic director, wonderful solos and ensembles by the likes of Renee Robinson, the veteran Dudley Williams, Guillermo Asca and Dwana Adiaha Greenwood, Amos J. Machanic, Jr., and gorgeous ensemble groupings and movement. It was the closest work in the evening to Ailey's spiritual and human emphasis.

Seeing Billy Wilson's The Winter in Lisbon the second time, the Lisbon pas de deux between Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell and Clifton Brown, its strong element of fantasy/encounter aided by lighting, and adroit use of a fedora, is the best part of the work. The sexuality is clear and handled with taste. The Winter In Lisbon is thoroughly urban, elements frequently cheeky, and competitive, a work of good cheer and mild humor.

An evening without an Ailey work in his company is somehow not an Ailey evening. Jamison came close to redeeming the absence. There was one dancer, mid-size and not a major soloist who stood out for the full-bodied participation he brought to his smallest assignment, an embodiment of the Ailey spirit. If the program notes and my reading jibe, the young man is Abdur-Rahim Jackson. Whether leading with the white pom pom in the Revelation processional or portraying the jazz percussionist in For Bird - With Love, he is consistently present, unforced in his precision,providing us pleasure with his own delight.