Dance Theatre of Harlem | Press Kit

2024–2025 SEASON

Director

Executive Director

ROBERT GARLAND Artistic

ANNA GLASS

OUR LEGACY

“Right from the beginning it was about diversity in the richness, which was very oppositional to the way that ballet was moving in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s in this country. At that time, ‘sameness’ was what was signified in ballet.”

VIRGINIA JOHNSON Artistic Director Emerita Founding Member

Founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, Dance Theatre of Harlem is considered “one of ballet’s most exciting undertakings” (The New York Times). Shortly after the assassination of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitchell was inspired to start a school that would offer children—especially those in Harlem, the community in which he was born—the opportunity to learn about dance and the allied arts. Now in its sixth decade, DTH has grown into a leading multi-cultural dance institution of unparalleled global acclaim. It continues to set standards in the performing arts, with an extraordinary legacy of providing opportunities for creative expression and artistic excellence.

A singular presence in the ballet world, Dance Theatre of Harlem tours nationally and internationally, presenting a powerful vision for ballet in the 21st century. The 18-member, multi-ethnic company performs a forward-thinking repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical works by George Balanchine and resident choreographer Robert Garland, as well as innovative contemporary works that use the language of ballet to celebrate Arthur Mitchell’s belief that this classical artform belongs to everyone. Through performances, community engagement and arts education, Dance Theatre of Harlem carries forward its message of empowerment through the arts for all.

Click here to learn more about our history.

Photo by Jack Vartoogian

Arthur Mitchell received the Sir Laurence Olivier Award for Creole Giselle , 1984. (top left) / Virginia Johnson and Lowell Smith in Fall River Legend , 1983. (top right) / Lorraine Graves as Myrta, Lowell Smith as Hilarion Guidry and the DTH Company as the Wilis in Creole Giselle . (bottom)

Dance Theatre of Harlem Archive.

Dance Theatre of Harlem Archive.

Photo by Rachel Neville.

Photo by Leslie Spatt

Dance Theatre of Harlem Archive.

DTH Company in Dougla. (top left) / Charmaine Hunter and Ronald Perry in Firebird. (top right)

DTH Company in Fall River Legend , 1984. (bottom)

OUR LEADERSHIP

ROBERT GARLAND

Artistic Director

NY Times: Dance Theatre of Harlem

Names a New Artistic Director

Robert Garland, a native of Philadelphia, began his dance training at The Philadelphia School of Dance Arts and the Pennsylvania Ballet. During this time, he also performed with The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), at the age of 15 years old. Upon graduation from The Juilliard School, he danced for two seasons with Ballet Hispanico, before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company, where he achieved the rank of principal dancer. After creating a work for the DTH School Ensemble, Arthur Mitchell invited Robert Garland to create a work for The Dance Theatre of Harlem Company and appointed him the organization’s first Resident Choreographer. Over the years, Mr. Garland has choreographed audience favorites, including Return, New Bach, and the most recent ballet Higher Ground set to music by Stevie Wonder. He also serves as Director of the DTH School. In addition to choreographing several

ballets for DTH, Mr. Garland has also created works for New York City Ballet, Britain’s Royal Ballet, Oakland Ballet and many others. His commercial work has included music videos, commercials and short films, including the children’s television show “Sesame Street,” a Nike commercial featuring New York Yankee Derek Jeter, the NAACP Image Awards, a short film for designer Donna Karan, and the “Charmin Cha-Cha” for Proctor and Gamble. Most recently, Mr. Garland was commissioned to create an original work for the opening of the Lower Manhattan park, Little Island, featuring Misty Copeland and Black ballet dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem, American Ballet Theatre, and New York City Ballet. Mr. Garland holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Juilliard School in New York City.

ANNA GLASS Executive Director

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Anna Glass has been involved in the performing arts as both an artist and arts administrator for over twenty-five years. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, recently named an “American Cultural Treasure” by the Ford Foundation and recent recipient of $18.5 million combined gifts from the Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett – the largest gift amounts in DTH’s history. Together with Artistic Director Virginia Johnson, Anna co-launched a collaborative initiative addressing racial inequity in ballet – The Equity Project. In May 2013, she began her own endeavor dedicated to preserving and documenting the legacies of prominent Black artists and cultural institutions, and reinterpreting those legacies onto multiple platforms, including live performance. She recently produced Carmen de Lavallade’s

newest solo show Carmen de Lavallade: Life of a Legend for Jazz at Lincoln Center and prior to that As I Remember It – an intimate portrait of this legendary artist, which toured across the country.  Anna has also served a consultant providing strategic planning and fundraising guidance to various non-profit arts organizations across the country and has served as an advisor for the DeVos Institute of Arts Management supporting New York City non-profits. Anna currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. Anna received her undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and her JD from the University of Dayton School of Law. She is also a licensed attorney in the State of New York. Anna lives in Harlem with her husband and daughter.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

““...DTH is poised to continue to redefine classical ballet as a vital, relevant artform for the next 50 years and beyond.”

—Playbill.com

“...Dance Theatre of Harlem’s latest commissions offer a different future, one where ballet is more daring and more perceptive than ever before.”

—Broadwayworld.com

“A night at the ballet can turn into lifelong inspiration when Dance Theatre of Harlem comes to town. The excitement the company generates onstage has a way of radiating into every corner of the dance community...”

—The Miami Herald

“It’s rare to encounter a dance company that achieves such a perfect balance between pushing the limits of the art form and grabbing the audience. In staying true to its course, Dance Theatre of Harlem arrives at brilliance.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Take any chance you can get to see this gem of a company perform!”

—Broadwayworld.com

“One constant has been the excellence of resident choreographer Robert Garland … Garland never seems derivative...”

Financial Times

The New York Times

—The New Orleans Advocate

“To this day, DTH remains an oasis of diversity, fully committed to its original mission of showcasing black excellence.”

—Dance Magazine

“...this beloved company has found its footing.”

“This is not what you expect, but this is what’s possible.”

Photo by Nir Arieli.

SAMPLE REPERTOIRE

Blake Works IV (The Barre Project)

Choreography: William Forsythe

Music: James Blake

Blake Works IV (The Barre Project, a commission for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is the latest installment in William Forsythe’s continuously evolving work The Barre Project. The work derives its inspiration from the propulsive and rigorously structured songs of composer James Blake, whose work appears primarily in the popular music idiom.

The Barre series began in 2021 at the height of the pandemic as a filmed dance that was streamed to a global audience facing the restrictions on live performance at the time. The live stage version for Dance Theatre of Harlem features newly choreographed sections that highlight the diverse and formidable talents of the ensemble and is a version of the ballet that is unique to this company alone.

Originating from The Barre Project (Blake Works II), created and filmed in 2020 for its first broadcast on March 25, 2021, on the CLI Studio Digital Platform - www.clistudios.com

DTH Company Artist Alexandra Hutchinson in Blake Works IV (The Barre Project) | Photo by Theik Smith

Click here to watch Blake Works IV

Nyman String Quartet No. 2

Choreography: Robert Garland Music: Michael Nyman

“This work is dedicated to the memory of two men whom I admire: John Wesley Carlos, former track and field medal winner at the 1968 Summer Olympics, well known for his triumphant salute upon the winners podium that year, and Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus, Mr. Arthur Mitchell (1924–2018), whose similar stand for his people, his community, and the arts “has brought us thus far on our way”—Robert Garland

“Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, True to our native land.”

(Lift Every Voice and Sing)

Click here to watch Nyman String Quartet No. 2

Photo by Nina Wurtzel

“‘Coming Together,’ a 1991 Nacho Duato work… is a thrill ride…these dancers look good in it, going for broke…” —The New York Times

Coming Together

Choreography: Nacho Duato

Music: Frederic Rzewski

The turbulent repetition of musical structures and recited text from Frederic Rzewski’s frantic composition provides the accompaniment and counterpoint to an abstract work by Nacho Duato, who uses his effervescence both to bring us closer to frenzy and hysterics, and as a contrast in his creation of oneiric atmospheres.

The eight sentences from a letter by Sam Melville (a political prisoner killed in the 1971 Attica prison riots) are first narrated in an additive then in a deductive progression. The title of the piece is a reference to a sentence of the letter and to the technique of musical improvisation. (Source: Compañía Nacional de Danza)

New Bach

Choreography: Robert Garland

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach

Created by Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Robert Garland for the Company, New Bach was first performed in September 2001, immediately after 9/11. The style of neoclassical ballet created by George Balanchine and cultivated at Dance

Theatre of Harlem by Co-founder Arthur Mitchell is at the center and essence of New Bach. It is a supreme expression of Garland’s tongue in cheek description, “post-modern-urban neoclassicism,” infusing popular vernacular dance and Africanist influences within a framework of George Balanchine’s neoclassical ballet influences.

Click here to watch New Bach

Photo by Rachel Neville

Take Me With You

Choreography: Robert Bondara

Music: Radiohead

DTH Premiere February 2024

beat,

“Bondara’s, Take Me With You, finds a soulmate in Radiohead’s restless

so skilfully employed ... The body language is searingly honest connecting social relationships and inner feelings.” — Danza

Best Dance Performances of 2022, The New York Times:

“In “Higher Ground” Mr. Garland has created something rare in classical dance: a ballet with a message…. a marvel of a work that shows off Mr. Garland’s many choreographic gifts, from his sparkling musicality to his ability to seamlessly weave classical ballet with influences from modern and social dance.”

Higher Ground

Choreography: Robert Garland

Music: Stevie Wonder

Created in celebration of DTH’s 50th anniversary, Higher Ground explores political parallels between the 1970s and today through the music of Motown icon Stevie Wonder. In the words of Mr. Garland,

“It has been said that African American people are the conscience of America. If that be so, then Stevie was and still is the conscience of Black America. The music’s cultural relevance and timeless messages are crucial to understanding art that can address social issues.”

Click here to watch an excerpt from Higher Ground

Return

Choreography: Robert Garland Music: Aretha Franklin; James Brown

Return was choreographed for Dance Theatre of Harlem’s 30th anniversary. Choreographer Robert

Garland calls the ballet’s style “post-modern urban neoclassicism - an attempt to fuse an urban physical sensibility and a neoclassical one.” Staged for 12 dancers to songs performed by James Brown and Aretha Franklin, Return is “... a witty fusion of ballet technique and street gait whose irony toward rhythm-and- blues had the audience in stitches.”

(The New York Times)

DTH Company Artist Ingrid Silva in Return | Photo by Rachel Neville

Allegro Brillante

Choreography: George Balanchine

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Allegro Brillante is characterized by what Maria Tallchief (the ballerina on whom the bravura leading role was created) calls “an expansive Russian romanticism.” The music’s vigorous pace makes the steps appear even more difficult, but the ballet relies on strong dancing, precise timing, and breadth of gesture. Balanchine said: “It contains everything I know about the classical ballet in 13.”

(Source: The George Balanchine Trust)

“I will never, ever let go of our Balanchine roots,” Garland said. “That is something to me that’s a nonnegotiable in terms of our artistic legacy and cultural background.”—The New York Times

Click here to watch Allegro Brillante

DTH Company Artist Amanda Smith and Former Company Artist Christopher Charles McDaniel in Allegro Brillante | Photo by Theik Smith

Pas de Dix

Choreography: George Balanchine

Music: Alexander Glazounov

DTH Premiere February 2024

Balanchine had danced in Petipa’s original production of Glazunov’s Raymonda at the Maryinsky Theatre, and the spirited last act of Raymonda was seed to this ballet. It is, in fact, the spirit and not the specific which is retained, for Balanchine’s Pas de Dix is a spectacle without story, a series of dances for an ensemble of eight with two principal dancers.

Petipa’s original choreography followed the narrative line of Raymonda. (The last act celebrated the nuptials of Lady Raymonda and the Count Jean de Brienne.) Balanchine added a brilliant introduction and conclusion incorporating typically Hungarian folk dance.

The classical and ethnic dance styles mingled here are paralleled in Glazunov’s score.

Program note courtesy of Kansas City Ballet.

Pas de Dix, translated from French, as “a dance for ten,” was born of Balanchine’s fond recollections of his student days in Russia.

DTH FEATURES

DTH x Alicia Keys: Rise Up

WPA Virtual Commissions: Reflections

Virginia Johnson and DTH on the Apple Original Gutsy DTH on The Ellen Show

Front Cover: Photo by Janeé Smith