Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Solomon Dumas, Constance Stamatiou and Yazzmeen Laidler in “Revelations,” 2021. (Paul Kolnik)

I will begin this review of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s opening night program at the Auditorium Theatre this past week in a somewhat unconventional way, for along with the company’s enduring allure came a slew of vivid memories.

Back in the summer of 1962 (when my family was deeply rooted in New York), my mother, a great dance fan, returned from the outdoor Delacorte Theater in Central Park and raved for weeks about the performance of the Ailey company that she saw for the first time since its founding in 1958. (The company has been celebrating its 65th anniversary this season.)

As a very young but serious dance student myself, I made sure I would see the company — but it was not until 1972 that I finally caught a performance, when the company arrived on stage at the New York City Center (located just a few blocks away from Carnegie Hall). I was instantly enthralled by “Revelations,” Ailey’s enduring signature work, and came under the spell of both the towering Judith Jamison, who spun across the stage holding a giant white umbrella, and a trio of male dancers who set the audience on fire in “Sinner Man,” one of the work’s nine scenes. And then came the grand finale, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,” in which all the dancers in elegant dress playing the “church ladies” took their seats on wooden stools, waved their fans in the Southern heat and were joined by snappily dressed men.

Since its premiere decades ago, “Revelations” has been performed as the closing work on almost every performance by the Ailey company. And while its unforgettable original cast captured a bit more of the attitudes of the work’s characters in a particular time period, the piece continues to generate great delight.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Kyle Abraham’s “Are You in Your Feelings?” (Paul Kolnik)

The first half of the opening night program in Chicago, which was superbly danced, was devoted to two more contemporary works: Ronald K. Brown’s “Dancing Spirit” (created in 2009 and “newly produced” in 2023) and Kyle Abraham’s “Are You in Your Feelings?,” dating from 2023. Both pieces were marked by a fluidity of movement, a notable mix of music and lighting that, in somewhat different ways, suggested the eclipse of the sun and the moon (or perhaps just brought this to mind given the recent real-life event).

Backed by the music of Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead and War — with elegant white and black costumes by Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya and lighting by Clifton Taylor — the dancers in Brown’s piece moved in a synchronous mix of pairs, opposing lines and various other formations, yet they rarely actually touched each other. Formal, yet intriguingly suggestive.

Abraham’s work, set to a wide mix of music, suggested a wide range of relationships and involved an equally wide range of partnering. Music ranged from “I Only Have Eyes for You,” performed by The Flamingos, to “Forgive Them Father,” performed by Lauryn Hill, to “That’s How You Feel,” sung by Drake, “I’ll Call U Back,” performed by Erykah Badu, and more.

Note: The Ailey company, which invariably attracts a large audience during its visits to Chicago, completed this season’s run at the Auditorium Theatre on Sunday. But it is already scheduled to return to the theater March 5-9, 2025. For details and tickets, visit auditoriumtheatre.org or call 312-341-2300.

Follow Hedy Weiss on Twitter: @HedyWeissCritic