It’s a split decision for Ailey’s full-throttle troupe

Opening a five-performance run, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater offered its usual combination of old works and new, spectacular technique and blistering intensity Wednesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

However, this first program of three (alternating through Sunday afternoon) also displayed an odd split in creative ambition. While the two oldest works, Elisa Monte’s “Treading” and Ailey’s own “Revelations,” embraced a modern dance identity, the two newest wanted to be something else entirely.

Set to an array of instrumental and vocal Moroccan music, Alonzo King’s plotless 11-part 2003 suite, “Heart Song,” clearly wanted to be a post-Balanchine ballet. Nearly all its technical instincts, ideas about line, and partnering assumptions came from the realm of neoclassicism, and King’s day job, of course, is running an adventuresome ballet ensemble in the Bay Area.

A dramatic trio for Linda Celeste Sims, Benoit-Swan Pouffer and Amos J. Machanic Jr. (the woman pinioned between the men) provided the apex of King’s balleticisms, while a flowing duet for Jeffrey Gerodias and Matthew Rushing made the most astute use of the Ailey dancers’ nonballetic capabilities. “Heart Song” also contained enigmatic visions of fallen men and nurturing women, plus one of King’s engulfing finales -- this one dominated by the remarkable power, speed and technical freedom of Samuel Deshauteurs.

Moreover, whether the dancing looked flashy or mysterious, highfalutin or earthy, it gained a magical luster from the shimmering, iridescent fabrics in the backdrop and costumes, both by Robert Rosenwasser.

Set to an original score by John Mackey, the 2003 showpiece quartet “Juba” found choreographer Robert Battle incorporating hand-clapping and body-slapping percussion from African American traditions. But these actions usually came across as self-administered punishment in a fierce, inventive group showpiece that most often looked like a nightmarish transformation of Balkan line dancing.

Like Laura Dean’s “Light” for the Aman Folk Ensemble, Battle’s “Juba” attempted to create propulsive, pan-cultural, contemporary folk-dance from a fusion of varied resources and influences. And fusion is just what Rushing, Deshauteurs, Abdur-Rahim Jackson and Hope Boykin achieved in their raw, feverish frenzy.

In contrast, the duet “Treading” (1979) seemed almost sedate, matching the music of Steve Reich with evolving, coolly elegant gymnastic tableaux executed effortlessly by Clifton Brown but with some strain by Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell.

“Treading” came from an era that valued essential statements: dance focused on one thing at a time. “Juba” and “Heart Song” want something different: a pileup of ideas and references, heated to a boil by Ailey prowess but never as deliberately spare and unassertive as Monte dared to be.

As for “Revelations,” this 1960 classic has it both ways, conveying a luminous simplicity in such sections as the “Fix Me, Jesus” duet and “I Want to Be Ready” solo but also piling up its own arsenal of effects (include some from ballet) when exclamation points are needed.

The Wednesday cast proved less satisfying in large-scale passages than more intimate sequences -- and the finale, in particular, ran on for a long time before the women locked into impressive unanimity. But Jamar Roberts (“Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel”), Fisher-Harrell and Machanic (“Fix Me, Jesus”), Gerodias (“I Wanna Be Ready”) and Brown (“Sinner Man”) gave fresh and deep interpretations of a work that will be seen with different casts at every performance in the engagement.

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Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: Today, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.

Price: $25-$75

Contact: (213) 365-3500