No one knows exactly what happened in 1921 when a young black man stepped into an elevator operated by a white woman in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Okla., but the aftermath was horrific. The man was arrested, and a white mob descended on the area, an affluent black enclave, and destroyed it. Hundreds were killed, injured or left homeless by the destruction.

The veteran choreographer Donald Byrd addresses the massacre in “Greenwood,” which premiered on Friday by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at City Center. A harrowing telling of it also opens the HBO series “Watchmen,” which brings it to urgent cinematic life.

Through its unspoken language, choreography can offer a different, sometimes more resonant imagining of space and time. “Greenwood,” though, set to music by the Israeli violist and composer Emmanuel Witzthum, feels more like a montage of images embellished with bursts of movement than a transformational reframing of a real event into a dance. Despite certain poignant moments — mostly involving the otherworldly Jacqueline Green — it’s like being led through a story rather than watching it unfold. And that makes for a long 35 minutes.

Layered into the score are field recordings from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as sound effects like footsteps. “Greenwood” begins and ends with figures entering and exiting through an opening at the back of the stage; flooded with hazy smoke and colors, from a fiery red to a more soothing blue, it seems to serve as a portal for memories.