Dance Theatre of Harlem’s (DTH) spring 2027 season at New York City Center proved that the company is back to its stellar form. After a nine-year hiatus in the early 2000s, DTH was reorganized and soon after its legendary Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell stepped down and the company’s former prima ballerina Virginia Johnson assumed the position of artistic director. Johnson brilliantly reshaped the company with a much smaller roster of dancers performing a few iconic ballets from DTH’s repertoire, but for the most part many of the ballets were new, made for a much smaller company of dance artists. Many of the new works were choreographed by Robert Garland, now DTH’s resident choreographer.
That was almost twenty years ago, and the DTH that audiences celebrated at this spring 2027 season is a company on the move. Now, under the artistic direction of Robert Garland, a former principal dancer of DTH, the company has a new sass and sparkle.
When DTH came back after its nine-year hiatus, the company looked more a very well-oiled regional ballet company. A far cry from its glory days in the 1980s and 1990s. Virginia Johnson assumed the difficult task of reorganizing the company and in her search for dance artists that would make the company proud, Johnson ran into a dry terrain of qualified black dancers.
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That was the past. DTH is now in a new era, and Garland is serving the company well with his selection of some very good dance artists and a repertoire that shows the new and evolved DTH at its best. DTH is not quite at the level of a world-class international ballet company, but it is on its way.
What Garland has successfully done in his short tenure as artistic director is curating dance works—many are his own ballets—that are both thought provoking and entertaining. He has also selected ballets that stretch the technical and performance abilities of the company. And for the most part, DTH rises to the occasion.
If there is one drawback, and there is more than one DTH challenge, it is the technical prowess of the DTH men. With the exception of Sean Miller, Kouadia Davis, Derek Brockington, Julian Cottrell, Ethan Wilson, and guest artist Michael Shavelle, the DTH male artists technical acuity falls short of the women. But that was always the case with DTH. Back in the glory days of the company, there were such great male artists as Donald Williams, Duncan Cooper, Rodolphe Cassand, Gregory Jackson, Kip Sturm, Augustus Van Heerdan, Joseph Cipolla, Alan Barnes, and a few others. But that was a different time, a different era.
And like many American ballet companies, DTH has no real star performers. In their heyday there was of course Lydia Abraca, Virginia Johnson, Stephanie Dabney, Lorraine Graves, Alicia Graf, and Christina Johnson. But to that point, what American ballet companies have household named dancers today? With the exception of Misty Copeland—who recently retired—household names in the American ballet landscape are an empty treasure chest.
Let’s move on to the four ballets on the program on Saturday, April 18. Of course, the big ballet on this program was “Firebird.” That said, there were three other ballets on the program that presented DTH at its best.
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Rober Garland’s “Higher Ground” with music by Stevie Wonder was a wonderful introduction for audiences that may be new to this new version of Dance Theatre of Harlem. “Higher Ground,” created for DTH in 2022 demonstrates Garland’s particular acuity with combining classical ballet techniques with social/street dance. This amalgam of social/street dance with classical ballet also pops up in Garland’s “Nyman String Quartet No. 2.”
DTH artists excelled in Garland’s Higher Ground,” a work that represents a Sankofa-esque reflection on our current times. This somewhat political work shows that dance can go beyond beauty but can also serve as a political and cultural avatar of our times.
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William Forsythe’s “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” is a technically challenging ballet and the DTH artists scored a slam-dunk hit with this pyrotechnically aerobic ballet. Known for creating ballets that stretches the limits of dance artists technical abilities and athletic prowess, “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” fits right into Forsythe’s pyrotechnical oeuvre.
The DTH women in their lime-green, pie-plate tutus mastered this difficult, but entertaining work. The DTH men, not so much. Still, this ballet does place more emphasis on exacting, dynamic pointe work, so the technical struggles of the DTH men to not mar this great dance piece.
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In Robert Garland’s “Nyman String Quartet,” Garland again mixes social/street dance styles with classical ballet technique. I first saw this ballet a few years ago at a free concert at New York City’s Damrosch Park. I was not moved by Nyman String Quartet” at first attendance. However, at this performance I observed the weight and nuance of this dance work. Garland picked the best DTH male artists work this ballet. And Kouadio Davis’ solo was heartfelt and performed with zest and panache.
The highlight of DTH’s 2027 season was the return of John Taras’ “Firebird.” This iconic premiered in 1982 was one of the company’s signature ballets. At this outing DTH proved that “Firebird” continues to be in good shape. Interestingly, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet are performing their versions of “Firebird” this season. DTH’s “Firebird” is perhaps the better of the three “Firebirds,” there is more dancing and the great Geoffrey Holder’s set and costumes are stunning.
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Ariana Dickerson was a very good Firebird. She possesses beautiful feet and arms, though her port de bras does not quite conjure up the image of the Firebird. What Dickerson lacked in bird-like movement, she made up in graceful sweeps of her arms and creamy bourees. The only drawback of her performance was the signature grande sissonne with the back leg almost touching the head was not dynamic enough.
Students from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) filled in some of the corps de ballet parts. Unfortunately, DTH does not have enough dancers to perform a fully cast “Firebird.” Still, the company is performing at a very high level, and Robert Garland is expertly pushing the company in the right direction.
William S. Gooch
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