Our guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER at New York City Center (Dec. 20, 8 p.m.; Dec. 21, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 24-26, 7:30 p.m.; though Jan. 5). Friday’s program offers an encore of many of the season’s new works — new to the company and new in general, such as Donald Byrd’s moving, challenging “Greenwood” about the 1921 Tulsa, Okla., massacre. Other programs this week focus on Ailey classics, recent repertory additions and the return of popular works from last year, like Rennie Harris’s “Lazarus” on Dec. 26. On Sunday evening, the company honors Masazumi Chaya, the retiring longtime associate artistic director, with a program featuring his favorite dances, a new celebratory piece by Matthew Rushing and a parade of Ailey luminaries.

212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org.

CATS at various cinemas nationwide (beginning Dec. 20, various times). Andrew Lloyd Webber’s peculiar musical based on T. S. Eliot poems has always been a fascinating piece of dance theater — not just for Gillian Lynne’s original jazzy choreography but for the embodiment of felineness that pervades the show. The big-screen adaptation gets a contemporary update from the Tony Award-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (“Hamilton”), who brings bite and bounce to this Jellicle world. Dance stars are prevalent in the cast, most notably the Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward in a leading role, along with her colleague Steven McRae and the former New York City Ballet dancer Robbie Fairchild.