“Tis the season of the opening-night dance gala. Last week it was New York City Ballet’s turn; Wednesday night it was time for the Alvin Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to kick off its annual month-long season at City Center.

Usually these galas offer some nibbles at dance sustenance for an audience of patrons that wants to move on quickly to their post performance edibles and get home at a reasonable hour. Thus they start early and the programs are short: Last night’s consisted of only two pieces, “Reminiscin’,” a world premiere created by Judith Jamison, who has been the company’s artistic director since Ailey’s death in 1989; and “Revelations,” first performed in 1960 and for decades the Ailey company’s signature piece.

But first Ailey company business engaged our attention. There’s an unusually intimate fellowship between Ailey’s performers and audience. They listened attentively, almost raptly, to remarks by board chairwoman Joan Weill that were in the way of an annual report. She announced the company’s take for the evening had reached a record figure, and kvelled about the new building that the company recently moved into, which is indeed a remarkable achievement.

At galas like these, guest celebrities are often roped in from outside the field of dance, a marketing ploy that may be effective but always feels a bit desperate, as if dance didn’t think itself high-visibility or glamorous enough. Last night, Roberta Flack introduced “Reminiscin’,” which uses her rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Always” as part of its taped accompaniment. “Revelations” was introduced by Taye Diggs.

Ms. Jamison also spoke at the beginning of both halves of the program. A seasoned sophisticate who knows how to sound the down-home note, she waved the audience members – who didn’t seem to want to stop meeting and greeting – into their seats for the second half. They obeyed instantly.

Throughout her career as Ailey’s leading lady, Ms. Jamison frequently danced to or impersonated the lives of great women of popular music. “Reminiscin'” is performed to a sound collage that begins with Sarah Vaughan’s rendition of “Love Me or Leave Me” and ends with Nina Simone’s version of the same song. The suite of dances concentrates on lovers’ quarrels and mating rites amid the woozy atmosphere of an after-hours joint.

In her remarks, Ms. Jamison told us that the piece was inspired by Edward Hopper, but the forlorn solitariness of Hopper’s all-night urban or roadside havens is acknowledged only glancingly. (The Ailey company has always been extroverted.) The opening dance shows two couples exchanging partners before returning to their original mates: If the piece intends to project a message about love, it is perhaps that all coupling is transitory.

At one point, two men partner each other – by now hardly a breakthrough but instead almost a cliche. But Ms. Jamison nevertheless gives all her incidents a raw personal stamp. Her women are fierce, performing tours en l’air that we are more accustomed to seeing performed by men. They throw themselves at their men in straddling, high-impact tosses.

Ms. Jamison saves the best for last, cleverly, sending off the ballet on a jubilant note. To Simone’s “Love Me or Leave Me,” the dancers move all together in unison for the first time in the piece. This extended passage for synchronized ensemble – just what we haven’t yet seen – provides the resolution needed to tie the piece together. For a few minutes of sheer bliss, the dancers’ panache and agility are synergistically multiplied in the jazz dance equivalent of a balletic ballabile.

When the curtain rises on Ailey’s “Revelations,” we see the dancers arrayed in tight formation. While a chorus sings of “I’ve Been Bunked,” the dancers break rank with stiffly outstretched arms, before they scatter to the edges of the stage, buffeted by torment and impugnment.

Ailey’s ability to limn a community of individuals is instantly apparent in the swift and clear strokes with which he launches the piece. “Revelations” responds to the sonics, as well as themes and lyrics, of the spirituals to which it is performed. It also illustrates the social customs – revival meeting and church social – in which those spirituals are received and appreciated.

On Wednesday night, “Revelations” was stirringly performed to live music, now a rarity in the Ailey company – as well, lamentably, in so much current dance. (The only other performance with live music is happening this Saturday night.) Moving from hushed whisper to stentorian outcry, the singers were as resonant as a Mussorgsky chorus, and the dancers took manifest inspiration from the sonorities to which they, and we, were treated.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s season runs until January 1 at City Center (131 W.55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, 212-581-1212).