This has been quite a year for the Alvin Ailey troupe, with the sudden departure late last year of artistic director Robert Battle for the usual placeholder reasons of health and family, and the sudden death, in November, of Judith Jamison, who, upon Ailey’s own death, saved the company from collapse. And yet the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will survive—Jamison made sure of that. Indeed, with a bench of brilliant dancers that stretches to the heavens, it will most likely thrive. The annual national touring season extends from late January to mid-May and includes stops in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Boston, and the Carolinas, North and South. Among the offerings, you can never see too much of Ailey’s Revelations, nor its 21st-century response, Ronald K. Brown’s Grace. Also look out for premieres by former company members Hope Boykin—whose last work for the troupe was smartly designed, righteous, fun, and underrated—and the deservedly in-demand Jamar Roberts. —Apollinaire Scherr