Displaying items by tag: Robert Garland

Projecting a vibe that felt more homecoming party than ballet presentation, Dance Theatre of Harlem returned to Chicago on October 17^th after a 10-year absence. The Auditorium Theatre audience took a while to assemble itself largely because people were having so much fun. DTH devotees and newbies, ballet connoisseurs and dabblers, parents and children, lithe young dancers and cane-wielding seniors all came to celebrate.

Executive Director Anna Glass, followed by Artistic Director Robert Garland, greeted the crowd. They gave shoutouts to folks in the audience with various connections to DTH and, at the same time, warmly drew everyone else into the ballet company’s extended family.  

Garland went on to discuss DTH’s origins, a reminder for some, an introduction for others. When Arthur Mitchell, the first African American to achieve principal dancer status with a major company, retired from the New York City Ballet, he headed to Brazil to establish a new company. But upon learning of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, he pivoted to Harlem, launching the troupe in 1969 to showcase African Americans as gifted exponents of classical ballet.

Dance Theatre of Harlem. Photo by Jose Calvo.

Case in point is the program’s first piece, Return, blending classicism and contemporary black culture. Choreographed by Garland and set to music by James Brown, Aretha Franklin and others, Return brings toe-shoe funk to a series of what could best be described as sketches. Twelve dancers go from bit to bit, snaky in movement and cheeky in attitude, setting the tone with Franklin’s Baby, Baby, Baby and hitting a high with Brown’s Superbad. A little hodgepodge-y overall, the work nonetheless sparked audible laughter and gasps with each virtuoso move from the dancers.

Next came Donizetti Variations, a Balanchine work premiered 66 years ago by New York City Ballet and recently mounted by DTH. The performance was a fitting, if not remarkable, interlude between Return and Firebird. As Garland noted earlier, George Balanchine discovered, trained and developed roles for Arthur Mitchell. The choreography’s exacting structure and Donizetti’s lively Romantic score demonstrate Balanchine’s 20^th century fusion of European tradition with American swiftness and minimalism.  

Closing the program was Firebird, composed by Igor Stravinsky for Michel Fokine’s 1910 work for the Ballets Russes. In 1982, John Taras choreographed a version for Dance Theatre of Harlem. Based on a Russian folk legend, Taras set the story in the Caribbean with lush sets and costumes by Geoffrey Holder.

DTH principals Alexandra Hutchinson in the titular role and Derek Brockington as the Young Man brought both technical and psychological precision to their initial pas de deux. The Firebird captivates and instructs rather than seduces, making her gift of a protective red feather a noble gesture. Romance comes later when the Young Man falls for the Princess of Unreal Beauty, danced by Kamala Saara, and uses the feather to vanquish Jhaelin McQuay’s Prince of Evil. Masterful soloists and an equally skilled ensemble built the legend gradually into a triumphant finish that brought the audience to its feet.

More information on the company can be found at Dance Theatre of Harlem.