But while there is a main figure (Daniel Harder in the opening cast), he is more the spirit of Ailey than a physical rendering of him. And though “Lazarus” is a celebration of Ailey’s life, it isn’t a joyful, pure dance experience. (Though there is plenty of dancing in it.)

“In my head I got stuck with the 60th anniversary,” Mr. Harris said. “We need to be ding-dong, yay! And I saw the poster: There are two dancers dancing, and it has confetti on either side, and I’m like, this is really happy. I don’t know if this piece is going to be that happy.”

Yet he didn’t change course. “I kept moving with the idea that I’m just going to do what I do,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of the work I do is dark.”

“Lazarus” runs an hour with an intermission between the acts. To create the movement material — generally, Mr. Harris teaches long phrases and then shapes and assembles the material into choreography — he worked with a skeleton crew of dancers. To put things into perspective, when he created “Exodus,” which lasted 20 minutes, he had four weeks. “This time, I had five weeks,” he said. “For an hour, right? I was stressed. I’m not great at math, but I kind of knew this was crazy.”

The skeleton crew was made up of dancers he had worked with previously, including some from his company, Rennie Harris Puremovement. Mr. Harris would create movement with them for the first chunk of the day and then rehearse with Ailey dancers later. “It alleviated so much stress,” he said. “I was able to move faster and get the choreography done.”