Dance Theatre of Harlem

The first major ballet company to prioritize black dancers. It was founded by Arthur Mitchell, who was himself a principal dancer with New York City Ballet during the 1950s and 1960s and who, after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, felt impelled to fight for the position of black dancers in the world of ballet. In order to counter prejudice against them and to nurture their talent he opted to found a school in Harlem. This opened in 1969 with K. Shook as artistic adviser and after its first summer attracted over 400 pupils. Two years later Mitchell formed a company which gave its first performance on 8 Jan. 1971 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York presenting three chamber ballets by Mitchell. Other works in its first season were by Balanchine and Robbins, and the company's unique energy and charm won them widespread acclaim. In the same year it gave its European debut at the Spoleto Festival and in 1981 it became the first black company to appear at Covent Garden. Mitchell has nurtured many impressive dancers including the ballerina V. Johnson and male principals P. Russell, J. Cippola, and D. Williams. The company's repertoire not only boasts a wide range of 20th-century classics, including works by Nijinska, de Mille, and Balanchine but also a distinctive black classicism. Works by choreographers like Holder and Vincent Mantsoe have drawn on the company's African and African-American heritage while Mitchell and Franklin's 1984 staging of Giselle famously re-located the ballet to a Creole setting, drawing on issues of American race and class conflict. In 1992 the company toured to S. Africa and to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 1999 it gave the New York premiere of an expanded version of South African Suite (mus. various, chor. Mitchell and others). Though suffering periodic financial stresses, Dance Theatre of Harlem has retained its position as one of the world's leading companies.

Young dancers from the Dance Theatre of Harlem perform during a dinner held at the White House on February 6, 2006. President George W. Bush and Laura Bush are in attendance.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem perform Dialogues in 2006.

Dance Theatre of Harlem is a ballet company and school of the allied arts founded in Harlem, New York City, USA in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. The company has not performed since 2004, however its Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble continues to do so.^[1]

Karel Shook was the first teacher and ballet master of the Dutch National Ballet, from where he returned to the United States as co-director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem School offers training to more than 1,000 young people annually with a community program open to any child who wants to study dance. Its program is called Dancing Through Barriers. It accepts pre-school children up to senior citizens.

Dance Theatre of Harlem

The school offers specializations in children’s movement, European ballet, choreography, and musicology.

The Dance Theatre of Harlem now has a program in Washington, D.C. for dancers to audition. If accepted the students work with Robert Garland. They have three levels: advanced beginners, intermediate pre-pointe, and advanced young ladies and men.

References

1. ^ Where Are All the Black Swans?, New York Times, published: May 6, 2007 (accessed May 6, 2007)

• Documentary: Dance in America: Dance Theatre of Harlem (1977) - originally aired by KCET

External links

• Dance Theatre of Harlem
• Dance Theatre of Harlem company profile at World Wide Dance UK

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