DANCE REVIEW : Memorial Program by Alvin Ailey Company : Choreography: Director Judith Jamison has given the company fresh vigor in the post-Ailey era.

Launching its first Los Angeles season since the death of its founder last December, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre arrived at the Wiltern Theatre on Tuesday with a new set of priorities.

In her first months as artistic director, Judith Jamison has given the company back its integrity. Gone is the emphasis on attitude, on pizazz, on saving energy for the hard stuff. Suddenly everyone looks deeply invested in the modern-dance essence of Ailey technique: the contractions and back hinges, for example, that pump an electric force into his balletic extensions.

Jamison obviously understands that Ailey’s place in dance history can’t excuse the deterioration that took place in his company during the years when emotional, fiscal and then health problems overwhelmed him. So in this uncertain, post-Ailey era, everybody seems to be on approval.

Certainly, the dancers take nothing for granted any more--not even “Revelations,” the only complete work on the opening memorial program. From the extraordinary delicacy of touch that Andre Tyson and Elizabeth Roxas bring to “Fix Me, Jesus” right through the tidal hip-rolling of Deborah Manning and Dereque Whiturs in “Wading in the Water” and on to the spectacular bravura of Desmond Richardson in “Sinner Man,” this is a performance full of discoveries.

Jamison opens the evening with excerpts from a major Ailey work that is probably nobody’s favorite: “Memoria,” a feverish modern-dance tribute to (and portrait of) the late Joyce Trisler, set to a jazz score by Keith Jarrett. Emotional but plotless, the piece shows a glamorous, troubled figure interacting with a group and soon dominating it--though, unfortunately, April Berry is so technically overtaxed by the central role that a sense of leadership proves out of the question.

As Berry retreats upstage, she’s replaced by slinky Sarita Allen, who heads the cool, shoulder-and-hip-swinging crew from “Night Creature,” an inventive, ironic 1975 jazz-dance showpiece to music by Duke Ellington. Allen looks very focused and in control this season and, by the time Roxas beautifully dances a brief, ballet-influenced solo from “The Lark Ascending” (1972; music by Ralph Vaughan Williams), we’ve surveyed both the key stylistic facets of Ailey’s creativity and his varied choreography for women.

“The House of the Rising Sun” trio from “Blues Suite” (1958) and an adaptation for three women of the finale from “Cry” (1971; music by Chenault Spence) will also show us archetypal Ailey women’s roles--with Neisha Folkes incendiary in the former excerpt and Manning awesomely fierce in the latter.

But first, there’s a big lapse in Jamison’s curatorial judgement: a crude seduction duet from “Opus McShann” (1988; music by Jay McShann and Walter Brown) that leaves Tyson and Renee Robinson stuck with ridiculous gender stereotypes and jazz-dance cliches.

“Opus McShann” also yields a funky character-dance duet for Richardson and Gary DeLoatch--virtuosi of the floppy hand and wobbly knee. Finally, there are the five “Blues Suite” guys, red bandannas in their back pockets (worn on the right, of course), surging through “Mean Ol’ Frisco” and reminding us of the potent dancing that Ailey always demanded from himself and the men who worked for him.

Best of all, as the ultimate statement in male sensitivity, Dudley Williams dances “A Song for You.” Williams has been in the Ailey company for 26 years and long ago he turned this 1972 solo from “Love Songs” (music by Leon Russell) into a signature vehicle--unthinkable without him, no matter how conspicuously he aged.

Now, in the aftermath of Ailey’s death, the solo has become an unforgettable dance-spiritual, with Williams looking heartbreakingly ravaged as he searches for “a place where there’s no space or time” to find his friend and mentor.

It is the only memorial Ailey will ever need.

The seven-performance Ailey company engagement continues through Sunday afternoon, with daily changes of program.