As the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates Judith Jamison’s 20th anniversary as artistic director, the company is performing a particularly varied repertory, one that acknowledges the past while looking towards the future. Along with eternal, beloved works such as Revelations and Blues Suite—and a special program of excerpts representing the past 20 years—there are three world premieres, all by choreographers with longstanding (yet significantly different) ties to the company.

Jamison herself has created a new work for the first time since 2005. Among Us (Private Spaces, Public Places) is a series of vignettes that allow characters and relationships to emerge amid a gallery opening. Setting things in motion—perhaps pulling the strings behind the scenes—is a sly being identified as the Jin or Genie, embodied with deft timing and authoritative presence by Clifton Brown. His over-the-top aqua outfit, complete with a tall feather on his head, certainly establishes his otherworldly credentials. One of the troupe’s most eloquent performers, Brown nimbly adapts to the grounded, fluid distillation of Indian Bharata Natyam and modern moves that Jamison has devised.

As the piece, set to a lively, if uneven, commissioned score by jazz pianist/composer Eric Lewis, proceeds through its seven sections, it does not fully cohere, but the committed individual performances have their memorable moments. Those present at the gallery—where the striking, neo-primitive artworks are based on Jamison’s own paintings (though the program does not credit her)—include two contrasting couples. One more blue-collar, one more Upper East Side, and they occupy separate sides of the stage, keeping their distance. Jamar Roberts, in a dark suit, slices forcefully through space as a dignitary or head of state. A more tender, mature couple is portrayed by Matthew Rushing and Ronni Favors (the company’s rehearsal director, making a lovely return to the stage), who both know how to make quiet, introspective moments resonate with power. Aisha Mitchell is fiery and funky leading the finale, and the piece ends on an invigorating note, with the genie having the last word. But the dance’s separate pieces do not add up to a completely satisfying whole.

Ronald K. Brown, whose works emanate spiritual fervor and elegantly blend traditional African and contemporary movement, had a hit 10 years ago with Grace, his first work for the Ailey company. His periodic returns to choreograph for them have been most welcome, and he clearly knows and understands these dancers well. His latest, Dancing Spirit, is a work of quiet hypnotic beauty that allows nine individual Ailey dancers to shine while also embodying the fervor and passion that makes them so striking. The work is intended as a tribute to Jamison (and takes its title from her autobiography), and he has certainly offered her and the company quite a gift.

As the dancers appear, focused, deliberate and purposeful along a diagonal path, the fluidity and strength of Brown’s supple, undulating phrases are mesmerizing. The pulse of the music and the juicy, seemingly inevitable responses of their finely tuned bodies communicate on both a gut level—it’s hard not to start undulating along with the music—and as an evocation of a higher plane. A first look at this striking, evocative work makes one eager for further, deeper acquaintance, to fully appreciate its subtleties. The company has had some flashy, disposable pieces enter its repertory over the years, but this one is definitely a keeper.

Matthew Rushing, a superlative, highly versatile performer who is the company’s senior male dancer, has taken on an ambitious project with Uptown, his first choreographic effort for the troupe, and has succeeded on many levels. The work derived from his realization of his own limited awareness of the rich artistic and intellectual history of the Harlem Renaissance. He delved into research, inspired to share his educational fervor on stage. Uptown, which features a debonair narrator/host dressed in tails (Abdur-Rahim Jackson) offers portraits and scenes evoking the cultural and social currents of Harlem in the 1920s. Set to music by such eminences as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake and others, it is most successful in its high-spirited ensemble sections.

These spill onto the stage with vigor and theatrical savvy. Guided by Victor, the narrator, we see a busy Harlem street with many crosscurrents of life intermingling. It feels like a feisty New York version of the opening of the ballet in An American in Paris. A rent party scene is irresistibly engaging, especially as led by the uninhibited, loose-limbed Briana Reed. Rushing moves into more serious and challenging territory, with solos set to the words of—and portraying—W.E. B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. However nobly intended, the narration and presentation verge on the preachy at times.

A robust, carefree male quintet representing a painting of five musicians brought to life is terrific, and a rapid-fire scene in which Olivia Bowman winningly portrays an ingénue auditioning for the 1921 musical Shuffle Along is delivered with wit and style. Everyone wears gleaming white for the juicy Cotton Club finale, delivered with verve and panache. Rushing has skillfully and appealingly evoked and embodied the style and tone of this memorable era.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Through Jan. 3, City Center, 131 W. 55 St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-581-1212, $25-$135.