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When Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opens its annual season at New York City Center<\/a> on Wednesday, it will be missing an important person: Robert Battle, the company\u2019s jovial artistic director.<\/p>\n Citing health reasons, Battle, 51, abruptly resigned this month<\/a>, telling The New York Times in an email that he planned on spending more time with his family and focusing on his health. As news of Battle\u2019s sudden departure spread around town, the reaction of confused disbelief went something like, \u201cWhat!?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The job of artistic director at a large company is probably less creative than it ought to be. But Battle, who took on the position in 2011, gave the impression that, beyond his public appearances and meetings with donors, he had a long term plan: to modernize the Ailey company \u2014 a venerable, predominantly Black ensemble \u2014 and to expand its repertory and its place in contemporary dance.<\/p>\n (Matthew Rushing, the company\u2019s associate artistic director, and a distinguished former Ailey dancer, will run the company until a replacement is found for Battle.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As the search for a new artistic director begins, my fear is this: The board will pass the torch to a dancer with vast experience inside the organization, but less experience watching dance in the larger world. The idea of watching should be obvious, but so many dancers who attain leadership positions seem to commission new choreography based on how the movement might feel on their bodies \u2014 not how it looks or the power it conveys. And then the repertory becomes superficial or, worse, sentimental.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Naming Battle as artistic director was a surprise in the first place. He had never been a member of the company; he had never danced Ailey\u2019s over-performed masterpiece \u201cRevelations\u201d (1960). But Battle, who studied at the Juilliard School and was a member of Parsons Dance, had choreographed for Ailey and led his own company, Battleworks, which disbanded when he took over the new job. He had real-world experience and that was a strength.<\/p>\n He updated Ailey\u2019s repertory without hogging the choreographic spotlight for himself. And his taste in choreography was mercifully broad. After years of great dancers\u2019 doing their best to elevate weak dances, this was refreshing. I didn\u2019t love everything he chose or commissioned, but I sensed it was there for a reason.<\/p>\n All the while, he spoke about Ailey dancers with the kind of penetrating insight that celebrated their individuality as movers and as people. In an interview<\/a> with The Times when he got the job, he said: \u201cI\u2019m interested in new conversations around how we view these dancers and their abilities. I see the opportunity to introduce new choreographers that are not necessarily \u2018new,\u2019 but will show the dancers new ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He did that. Dancers showed their abilities in many memorable ways, from performing in Ohad Naharin\u2019s entrancing \u201cMinus 16\u201d \u2014 where the choreographer\u2019s movement language, Gaga,<\/a> is front and center \u2014 to more contemporary ballet works, like Jiri Kylian\u2019s \u201cPetite Mort\u201d and Wayne McGregor\u2019s \u201cChroma.\u201d Ailey was claiming dances, good and bad, from the European canon as its own. And he cultivated talent: Jamar Roberts became the company\u2019s first resident choreographer under Battle\u2019s watch, creating engrossing works like \u201cMembers Don\u2019t Get Weary\u201d and \u201cOde.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The company\u2019s first two-act work, the moving and momentous \u201cLazarus<\/a>,\u201d by the hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris, came under Battle\u2019s leadership, too. And there was range, including dances by Twyla Tharp \u2014 the sort that even ballet companies struggle with because of their rhythmic complexity and groove. \u201cRoy\u2019s Joys,\u201d set to recordings by Roy Eldridge, is abundant with layers of vernacular dance, ballet and modern \u2014 everything to grow a company of dancers, and grow they did under Battle.<\/p>\n That mix of new and the unexpected old was also important in the bigger picture of dance<\/em> \u2014 \u201cRoy\u2019s Joys\u201d (1997) was granted a second, much-needed life at Ailey. Carolyn Adams<\/a>, a former Paul Taylor dancer, was a crucial mentor for Battle, and one of his first steps was to introduce the Taylor repertoire to the company. Why had no one ever thought of that? Alvin Ailey studied with Martha Graham; Taylor was in her company. This was lineage<\/em> up there on that stage. I\u2019ll never forget the invigorating sight of Ailey dancers performing Taylor\u2019s \u201cArden Court,\u201d<\/a> a bold, crisp example of showing them, as he said, in new ways.<\/p>\n Not everything was lasting or important, of course. There weren\u2019t enough new works by women of substance, as usual. But Battle branched out, and as he dusted off the Ailey company, he led it into the 21st century with a public persona that was as fresh as his artistic agenda. Delivering curtain speeches, he was unpretentious and loose; his words were true invitations to the dance \u2014 they swung.<\/p>\n The announcement of Battle\u2019s resignation was made less than two weeks before the company\u2019s annual City Center engagement, a blockbuster event that draws rapturous crowds to the theater for their holiday fix of \u201cRevelations.\u201d Again, the timing, and the suddenness of it, are strange.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Ailey organization presents itself as running on joy and community, and yet it\u2019s also a brand. That brand is stronger than any individual \u2014 including Battle and Jamar Roberts who, seemingly, one day just stopped being the company\u2019s resident choreographer. The Ailey organization will continue without Battle, but I will miss the sense of history and heart he brought to it all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n