DANCE REVIEW : ALL-AILEY PROGRAM AT THE WILTERN

From the lyrical, balletic “Lark Ascending,” through the soulful, sinewy “Revelations,” a suggestion of Alvin Ailey’s remarkable creative range over the past quarter century was evident in a four-part program, Sunday afternoon at the Wiltern Theatre.

The sold-out, all-Ailey bill also tested the capabilities of the current company and sometimes overtaxed it. In Ailey’s problematic Expressionist dance-drama “For Bird--With Love,” for instance, Rodney Nugent lacked his predecessor’s stellar technical surety and volatile charisma as doomed jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Nugent also danced unevenly as the central cavalier in “Lark,” his elegance of bearing undeniable but his mastery of the steps far from conclusive. However, Elizabeth Roxas triumphed opposite him, soaring through deeply sculpted turns into sweeping extensions of great boldness and power.

The classic solo “Cry” found Renee Robinson an Everywoman of awesome dignity and concentration, renewing the work through understatement in the earlier sections but never achieving the full explosive abandon needed for “Right On, Be Free.”

During the quietly poignant “Fix Me, Jesus” duet from “Revelations,” Robinson seemed almost in a trance and the final image--her hovering above Daniel Clark’s shoulders as if in flight--had overpowering expressive purity.

The rest of the cast wavered from respectable (Dudley Williams in “I Want to Be Ready”) to undistinguished (Marey Griffith and Kevin Brown in “Wade in the Water”). But, Lord knows, just about any “Revelations” is infinitely better than no “Revelations.” In any case, Marilyn Banks came on so strong as one of the fan-wielding finale celebrants that the afternoon would have been memorable for her alone.