Alvin Ailey Announces New Season

Since Alvin Ailey’s death in 1989, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, now directed by Robert Battle, has held true to the choreographer’s insistence that the company not be a showcase for his works alone, but that it provide a palette for other choreographers as well. The company’s plans for its new season at the New York City Center further that mandate with the world premiere of an untitled work by Aszure Barton and the company premiere of “Chroma” by the British choreographer Wayne McGregor.

Among the Ailey works to be seen during the season, which runs from Dec. 4 to Jan. 5, are fresh stagings of “The River” and “Pas de Duke,” two of his pieces inspired by the music of Duke Ellington, as well as his signature work, “Revelations.”

Ms. Barton’s new work, which the company commissioned, is said to have been inspired by the Ailey dancers’ specific styles. It is set to a new score by Curtis Macdonald. (The date of the premiere, and other specifics of the company’s programming, have not yet been announced.)

Mr. McGregor’s “Chroma,” which was created for the Royal Ballet in 2006, uses 10 dancers to explore shifting spatial relationships on a Minimalist set by John Pawson. Its score is an amalgam of new music by Joby Talbot and orchestrations of songs by Jack White of the White Stripes.

The new Ailey productions revisit two of the 14 works that Ailey based on Ellington’s music. “The River,” which Ailey choreographed for the American Ballet Theater in 1970, was first performed by his own company in 1980. The work was Ellington’s first score composed specifically for dance. “Pas de Duke,” first performed at Lincoln Center in 1976, and was last staged by the Ailey troupe during the 2006-7 season. Both works have been restaged by Masazumi Chaya, the company’s associate artistic director.

Also among the season’s highlights are productions of Bill T. Jones’s “D-Man in the Waters,” choreographed to Mendelssohn’s youthful Octet (Op. 20) and Ronald K. Brown’s “Four Corners” (2013), a work inspired by the lyrics of Carl Hancock Rux’s “Lamentations,” which the company performed at Lincoln Center in June. The season also includes a special performance on Dec. 17, honoring Matthew Rushing, the company’s rehearsal director.