Robert Garland News

Dance Theatre of Harlem enjoyed a magnificent season at City Center.

Opening night of Dance Theater of Harlem's 2015 season at City Center began with a curtain speech by Artistic Director Virginia Johnson, who was visibly more excited and confident on this third anniversary of the rebirth of the legendary company than she had been in 2014 when DTH danced at Jazz at Lincoln Center after a nine-year performing hiatus. Her contagious enthusiasm proved to be well founded as the evening progressed with a quadruple bill called 'What's New' that showcased the vastly improved technique and artistry of the 18-member troupe.

Juilliard Dances Repertory presents masterworks by acclaimed choreographers Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Juilliard dancers perform Martha Graham's Dark Meadow and Merce Cunningham's BIPED. Aaron Sherber will conduct the Juilliard musicians performing the music live with the dancers for Dark Meadow.

Next month Juilliard Dances Repertory presents masterworks by acclaimed choreographers Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Juilliard dancers perform Martha Graham's Dark Meadow and Merce Cunningham's BIPED. Aaron Sherber will conduct the Juilliard musicians performing the music live with the dancers for Dark Meadow.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) observes its Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, "Keeping the Dream" on Friday, January 16 and Saturday, January 17 with performances, a Ninth Annual Girl Scout Sleepover, and student/family arts education workshops.

At the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the arrival of the holiday season is marked by 'Holidays at the Apollo,' which this year includes 'Ellington at Christmas,' a two-act offering of Ellington's 'Nutcracker Suite' and portions of his 'Sacred Music Concerts.' We're re-gifted these Ellington holiday classics in an enjoyable, if not completely flawless performance by Ellington expert David Berger and his Jazz Orchestra, featuring students from the Dance Theater of Harlem School and the Arts High School Advanced Choir of Newark, as well as solos by baritone Norm Lewis, sopranos Lizz Wright and Priscilla Baskerville, and tap virtuoso Jason Samuels Smith.

After 16 years, the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University welcomes back Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) to Chicago as part of its 125th Anniversary Season celebration, this weekend, November 21 - 23, 2014.

After 16 years, the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University welcomes back Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) to Chicago as part of its 125th Anniversary Season celebration, November 21 - 23, 2014.

ROLEX Presents NEW YORK NEW YORK a helluva town Career Transition For Dancers' 29th Anniversary Jubilee at the Hilton New York Hotel 6th Ave (bet 54 & 55 Sts) on Monday, Oct. 6th.

The New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies), NYC's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, announces Arthur Mitchell, founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem, as the recipient of the 2014 NY Dance and Performance Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance and Dr. Chuck Davis of DanceAfrica! for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. These awards will be presented at the 30th Annual Bessie Awards ceremony at the legendary Apollo Theater on Monday, October 20.

New York City Center's 2014-15 season features an exciting lineup of dance and musical theater that begins with the 11th season of City Center's acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival. The Festival features 24 acclaimed dance companies and artists from around the world, and will kick off in September with two free dance performances at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in association with The Public Theater, followed by five unique programs at City Center in October. The Band Wagon, an Encores! Special Event starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, follows in November, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, City Center's Principal Dance Company, returns for a month-long engagement in December.

Last week, The Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) presented a classic but eclectic program of four ballets at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. To my surprise, they gave me something I could feel. The performance reminded me that ballet can be fun, art should be communal and a coloratura soprano singing 'Domine Deus, Rex caelestis' is just as electrifying as James Brown singing 'Mother Popcorn.'

'America's not used to seeing a black face in this particular art form,' says 16-year-old Naazir Muhammad about ballet. He should know. He and his twin brother, Shaakir, both practice ballet at the American Ballet Theatre School in New York. Both are aware that ballet is expected to have a certain face. The Dance Theatre of Harlem defies these expectations. Because of this, the company is special in two ways. It is innovative and radical in existing as well as being innovative and radical in dance. Aretha Franklin en point? You never.

Today we are turning back the hands of time to 1947 in honor of awards season to one of the most revered and revived plays of all time, Tennessee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.

Juilliard Dance, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, opens its 2014-15 season in December 2014 with New Dances: Edition 2014 featuring four world premiere dances by innovative choreographers, Juilliard alumnus Austin McCormick (1st-Year Dancers); alumna Loni Landon (2nd-Year Dancers); Kate Weare (3rd-Year Dancers); and Larry Keigwin (4th-Year Dancers). Mr. Keigwin is returning to Juilliard where he already choreographed and premiered, in December 2008, Runaway, a large-scale piece that riffs on the high fashion runway scene, and in December 2009, Megalopolis.

On Friday, April 25th, the new Dance Theater of Harlem, now in its second year, presented three ballets. Pas De Dix, a set of dances taken from the last act of the full-length ballet Raymonda, choreography by Marius Petipas and originally staged for DTH by Frederic Franklin, offered this young company the opportunity to delve into the world of the classics. The dancers worked diligently to execute the steps and the feeling required for such a work. In the second variation Nayara Lopes was fresh and sweet, while Linsey Croop demonstrated qualities both strong and cute in the in the fourth variation. In general, however, while potential was evident, the dancers lack the experience and maturity to make the most of this ballet. I expect that in a few years they will be giving more assured, even exciting performances.

Dance Theatre of Harlem's 2014 run at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the second New York season after a nine-year absence, drew to a satisfying close on the afternoon of Sunday, April 27th with a well-chosen triple bill. The beloved troupe, America's first African American ballet company, was forced to go on hiatus in 2004 when it announced its $2.3 million debt. Now under the able artistic direction of Virginia Johnson, who was a DTH principal ballerina for 28 years, the resurrected national treasure is dedicated to carrying on the mission of founders Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook to 'present a ballet company of African-American and other racially diverse artists who perform the most demanding repertory at the highest level of quality.'

The Dance Theatre of Harlem Celebrates its 45th Anniversary at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The Virginia Arts Festival presents Dance Theatre of Harlem on May 17 and 18 in Norfolk and Richard Alston Dance Company on May 21 and 23 in Norfolk and Williamsburg in this year's Dance Series. The 2014 Festival features two world-class companies who have rewritten the rules for these art forms.

This month, Juilliard Dances Repertory presents repertory works by acclaimed choreographers Eliot Feld, Juilliard alumnus Lar Lubovitch, and Twyla Tharp. Juilliard dancers perform Baker's Dozen by Twyla Tharp; Concerto Six Twenty-Two by Lar Lubovitch; and The Jig is Up by Eliot Feld. All three dances were choreographed between 1979 and 1986, and Juilliard dancers have had the opportunity to learn the dances through intensive work with two of the choreographers - Eliot Feld and Lar Lubovitch - and with Juilliard alumna Shelley Washington, an original member of the cast of Twyla Tharp's work.