Who gets to be part of the modern-dance canon? And who decides? When Paul Taylor was alive, his official bio, the kind printed in news releases and programs, called him “the last living member of the pantheon” that created American modern dance. This wording always gave me pause, as it excluded at least one important modern-dance trailblazer: the African-American choreographer Donald McKayle, who died just a few months before Taylor last year.

It feels significant, then, and like a step in the right direction, that this season Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, now directed by Michael Novak, dedicated a whole evening to remembering McKayle . Taylor and McKayle were longtime friends; as the program for Tuesday’s free celebration of McKayle at Lincoln Center pointed out, they met in 1955 as new members of the Martha Graham Dance Company and were roommates on Graham’s State Department tour of Asia and the Middle East. A framed photo of the two as 25-year-olds (they were born three weeks apart in July 1930) sat on Taylor’s desk.

The tribute featured three guest troupes dancing McKayle’s work: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in “Rainbow ’Round My Shoulder” (1959), first presented by Taylor in 2016; students of the Juilliard School in “Crossing the Rubicon: Passing the Point of No Return” (2017); and Ronald K. Brown/Evidence in “Songs of the Disinherited” (1972). Together these offered a glimpse into McKayle’s earnest, lifelong exploration of themes of struggle, resilience and hope in the face of oppression.