Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Schedules Lengthy Visit

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to Southern California in February for the longest visit in its history.

Three engagements are scheduled: Feb. 17-26 at the Wiltern Theatre (sponsored by UCLA), Feb. 28 and March 1 at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, and March 2-5 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. The company last appeared locally in 1993.

Judith Jamison’s fifth season as company artistic director is dedicated to the late Lula E. Cooper (Ailey’s mother) and features female choreographers. New works by Elisa Monte (“Mnemonic Verses”) and Brenda Way (“Scissors, Paper, Stone”) have been announced for the Southland tour, along with Jamison’s “Hymn,” which features a text by actress-playwright Anna Deavere Smith. A new production of Ulysses Dove’s “Vespers” (1986) will also be danced in Los Angeles and Cerritos.

Below, the repertory:

Wiltern Theatre

Feb. 17, 8 p.m.; Feb. 23, 8 p.m.; Feb. 24, 8 p.m.: “Hymn” (Jamison/Ruggieri/Deavere Smith), “Vespers” (Dove/Rouse), “Revelations” (Ailey/traditional spirituals).

Feb. 18, 2 and 8 p.m.; Feb. 26, 2 p.m.: “Carmina Burana” (Butler/Orff), “Treading” (Monte/Reich), “Revelations.”

Feb. 19, 2 and 8 p.m.; Feb. 25, 2 and 8 p.m.: “Night Creature” (Ailey/Ellington), “Scissors, Paper Stone” (Way/blues and rock recordings), “Masekela Langage” (Ailey/Masekela), “The Winter in Lisbon” (Wilson/Gillespie).

McCallum Theatre

Feb. 28, 8 p.m.: “The River” (Ailey/Ellington), “The Winter in Lisbon,” “Revelations.”

March 1, 11 a.m.: (special free invitational student performance).

Cerritos Center

March 2, 8 p.m.: “Night Creature,” “Treading,” “Shelter” (Zollar/Wedderburn), “Revelations.”

March 3, 8 p.m.: “The River,” “Hymn,” “Revelations.”

March 4, 2 p.m.: “The River,” “Mnemonic Verses” (Monte/Hassell), “The Winter in Lisbon.”

March 4, 8 p.m.: “Carmina Burana,” “Scissors, Paper, Stone,” “Revelations.”

March 5, 8 p.m.: “Night Creature,” “Treading,” “Vespers,” “Revelations.”