Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s winter engagement at New York City Center will put Luther Vandross beside William Forsythe, with Judith Jamison and Alvin Ailey himself helping to hold the evening together.

The December 2–January 3 season offers two world premieres and an unusually revealing company premiere. Power of Love, by Jamar Roberts, is set to songs by Vandross in the year the singer would have turned 75. The Ailey repertory listing credits musical production to Marcus Miller and Ron Gillyard; the work runs about 40 minutes. It debuts at the opening-night gala on December 2.

Yue Yin’s A Matter of Time uses her FoCo Technique, blending influences from traditional Chinese folk dance and contemporary movement. The company will also take on Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, a ballet associated with exacting speed, imbalance and angular lines. Ailey describes it as the work’s first performance by a modern-dance-based company.

The contrasts are deliberate. The season also brings new productions of Jamison’s Hymn and Ailey’s Pas de Duke, with Cry and Revelations among the returning repertory. Rather than rehearse a single version of the company’s identity, these programs place its history alongside choreographers working in very different movement traditions.

That variety also presents a practical complication: audiences will not see every work on every night. The December 3 program pairs Power of Love with Revelations; the December 11 bill includes Forsythe and Ronald K. Brown’s Grace. The opening gala is not a substitute for either. Consult the performance-by-performance calendar before choosing a date.

For an institution whose holiday engagement is itself a New York ritual, the more interesting question is not whether its classics will return. It is what happens when those classics share a stage with unfamiliar forms.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, December 2, 2026–January 3, 2027, New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street. Dates, repertory and tickets.

Image: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Manhattan home, photographed in 2019 by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0. An exterior photograph, not a 2026 production image.