The “Ailey Classics” retrospective performed on Saturday afternoon at City Center unfolded as a suite. The Ailey troupe didn’t take curtain calls following any of the pieces except “Revelations” – which was performed in its entirety to close the program – nor did the dancers bow collectively before each of the two intermissions.Thus passing seamlessly from one sampling of Ailey’s choreography to the next, the program offered a welcome and entertaining opportunity to study Ailey’s personal synthesis of African and Caribbean dance, ballet, Broadway jazz, and classic modern dance.

It was particularly interesting to analyze the influence of Martha Graham’s technique on Ailey, who initially inherited it from his teacher, Lester Horton. The wide second-position plie that came to be identified with Graham is all over Ailey’s work, where its presence clearly reaches back to its provenance in African dance. I was reminded also of Graham’s own beginnings with the Denishawn troupe in the World War I era, and of that company’s eager adoption onto the concert platform of native dance from around the globe. In addition, there is probably a familial, reciprocal relationship between the Graham contraction and the stertorous, sinuous spine of African dance, both of which play significant roles in the Ailey vocabulary. (Indeed, it would be wonderful to see the Ailey Theater perform a work of Graham’s.)

The program opened with Ailey’s “Memoria,” created in 1979 to honor his late friend Joyce Trisler, who was also a student of Horton’s.Performed to the sounding brass and tinkling ivories of Keith Jarrett, the work seems to describe – almost concurrently – a woman’s passage through life,and from life into death. She is at all times the hub of a many-splendored ensemble that exhibits characteristic Ailey orchestration of a stage full of dancers moving in unison, contradicted by the frequent rank-breaking forays of individual members.

Throughout “Memoria,” the heroine is ministered to by two male guardian angels. A majestic doppelganger spirit appears, and she and the heroine dance mirrored movement, holding hands and extending flanking developpes. Asha Thomas as the heroine maintained admirably beatific poise through, and company newcomer Alicia Graf danced gorgeously as her spectral companion.

Following “Memoria” were excerpts from 1974’s “Night Creature.”The opening of the piece’s second movement found Renee Robinson standing at the head of a pincer formation of undulating sybarites. Ms. Robinson strolled provocatively toward the audience; she and her fellow dancers were on the prowl. Heads swiveled, arms reached out and pulled back, hands and feet trucked to the slinky Duke Ellington score. When, at the close of the movement, the dancers returned to their opening tableau, Ms. Robinson waved each one away with a host of different intentions, blowing a kiss to one fellow and issuing a dismissive wave to another without so much as turning her head.

Part 2 of the program opened with the pulsing calypso-accented mellowness of an ensemble from 1980’s “Phases,” followed by two duets from 1988’s “Opus McShann,” created a year before Ailey’s death to honor bluesman Jay McShann. The first duet described a man’s feigned disinterest in the face of a very determined young woman’s pursuit.Dion Wilson threw off Olivia Bowman initially, but before long it was he who was importuning her eagerly. Next, Clifton Brown and Antonio Douthit were light-footed and amusing as two men stumbling home after staying too long at a bar.

From 1972’s “Love Songs,”Amos Machanic Jr. performed a solo to Donny Hathaway singing Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” which appears in a line of descent in Ailey’s canon from the absolution-seeking “I Wanna Be Ready” in “Revelations.” Mr. Machanic was superlatively equal to the role’s mixture of sinew and lyricism.When Mr.Russell sings, “I was hidden,” Mr. Machanic for a moment seems to peek out from behind curtains. Ailey had a charming way of making glancing illustrations of a song’s lyrics that didn’t seem overly imitative or prosaic.

The scene included from “For ‘Bird’ – With Love” (an homage to Charlie Parker) was more a matter of period atmosphere than anything else. The dancers were jazz combos, showgirls, and nightclub spectators. By contrast, Tina Monica Williams and Vernard Gilmore demonstrated virtuoso partnering techniques in the short duet from 1973’s “Hidden Rites,” climaxing in spectacular fashion when she straddled his waist while he spun her dervish-like.

This second act concluded with the final section of 1971’s “Cry,” featuring Dwana Adiaha Smallwood’s lacerating abandon, her dancing-on-hot coals intensity. For the “Classics” melange, the company added a fillip to this customarily solo piece, when Ms. Smallwood was joined for the final measures by two other dancers, Roslyn Deshauteurs and Ms.Thomas.

The Ailey company certainly overuses “Revelations” as a closing piece. It has been performed constantly this season. The audience expects to see it, but the only way the troupe would be able to make the audience accept a substitute would be for it to start concluding more of its programs with other pieces.But no less than the audience, the Ailey dancers never seem to tire of “Revelations.” Their performances thus far this season have been rousing, never stale. Multiple repetitions allow many different dancers to assume touchstone roles in the company’s signature piece.

In “Fix Me, Jesus,” Ms. Thomas and Jamar Roberts were each exceptional. Standing on bare feet in half toe, she was able to supply the sensuous cantilena that is more commonly seen in balletic adagios performed on pointe. Ms. Deshauteurs, Mr. Machanic, and Ms. Smallwood also were outstanding in the serpentine immersions of “Wade in the Water.” In the processional that precedes it, the dancers’ movement suggests both tribal celebration and revivalist churchgoers. Ailey makes vivid the links between the Southern church and its African forebears, and the cultural inclusiveness that characterized his worldview was fully demonstrated in the “Classics” program.

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).