Alvin Ailey review: Cool formality, hot hip-hop

There may have been changes at the top for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, now under the direction of the affable Robert Battle, but the spirit of the dancing was as bright as ever at the first performance of the company's regular weeklong Cal Performances run at Zellerbach Hall on Tuesday night.

If Battle, who took the reins last summer, seems content to steward the company's considerable repertoire, nevertheless there are hints that his leadership will continue to push Ailey in fresh directions, with commissions and acquisitions by choreographers well known to the company, but works just offbeat enough to pique curiosity about the future.

Leading off Program A - which repeats on Friday - was hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris' "Home." For the Bay Area premiere, the extraordinary Matthew Rushing - who shifted from full-time dancer to company rehearsal director in 2010 - returned to the stage as a guest artist and he is the heartbeat of Harris' pulsing body of 14 dancers.

Alvin Ailey review: Cool formality, hot hip-hop