(Ariana Dickerson and Micah Bullard. Photo by Nir Areli)
By Jerome Langston
“We are preparing for our tour to France, which is about to happen right now. And then we follow that up by coming to Lorraine Graves’ hometown,” said Robert Garland, the artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, much earlier this week and very early during our lengthy phone chat that occurred on a sunny, but frigidly cold afternoon in February. The storied ballet company, founded in 1969 by the great Arthur Mitchell with Karel Shook, has been expertly guided by Garland as its AD since July of 2023, and its successes since have been inarguably impressive. The French tour represents DTH’s first tour of Europe since the early aughts, Garland later tells me. There was an opportunity for the company to perform in Paris in 2005, that didn’t happen… “this time it’s happening, so I have upwards of 15 years of work that Paris and then Europe has never seen,” he added. Following the performances in France, which runs into March, DTH will make its return to Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall for several performances, as part of the current season of the highly respected Virginia Arts Festival.
The last time I’d chatted with Robert Garland was in 2024, when he was less than a year in his current role as DTH’s artistic director. And though he may still be considered relatively early in that tenure, Garland has a much longer and acclaimed career with the company, which he joined back in the eighties after graduating from Julliard. He became a principal dancer in 1991, and then later became the iconic ballet company’s first resident choreographer. Back in April of 2024 when we first talked, the Philadelphia native was prepping for the company’s New York season at City Center, which featured performances prior to the May performances that year in Norfolk. This year Norfolk gets to experience Dance Theatre of Harlem’s astonishing aesthetic – a unique mix of classical ballet and African American cultural influences, before its New York season begins. Robert says that’s actually pretty common in DTH’s history with the Virginia Arts Festival. “Actually our relationship with the Virginia Arts Festival, Rob’s festival… has been so long, that whenever we worked with them we always would show first there with Rob. And so it’s just continuing a tradition, even though it’s been about a couple years since we did it last,” he would later say. “I love going to Norfolk. I really do.”
The legend of Arthur Mitchell has been well documented but deserves repeating here. Mitchell was the protégé of the George Balanchine and became the first black principal dancer at New York City Ballet. He started Dance Theatre of Harlem, in response to the assassination of Dr. King. The company is regarded as the first black, classical ballet company. Its place in the world of high arts, for an American institution, has long been celebrated. The great Virginia Johnson served for many years as its artistic director, pulling it out of an extended hiatus. Like Virginia, and also Norfolk native Lorraine Graves, the pioneering principal ballerina, who passed away in March of 2024, Robert Garland was very close to Mitchell, who transitioned in September of 2018, at 84 years of age. True racial diversity in ballet has long been the company’s ethos. “It’s wonderful that there are a lot of black dancers, peppered within a lot of the predominately white ballet institutions, however I will say that the beauty of Dance Theatre of Harlem is that it’s not one or two, but it’s five, ten, fifteen, twenty… You know? And so I think it’s part spectacle…but part hope. We’re showing the world what it really can potentially be,” remarked Garland.
The return of Dance Theatre of Harlem to the Virginia Arts Festival is always a big deal. But this year it’s even bigger, due to the highly celebrated return of “Firebird,” a DTH classic, signature work, which was first created in 1982, but hasn’t been performed in like 20 years. The original “The Firebird” by Stravinsky premiered in Paris, in 1910. That now legendary ballet and orchestral work was steeped in Russian fairy tales and folklore. Robert recounts how when George Balanchine first moved to America and started his own company, their first big hit was “Firebird.” Arthur Mitchell was one of his star dancers. “There was a moment when Dance Theatre of Harlem was growing, and moving in an upwards trajectory in terms of notoriety, and he inquired of Mr. Balanchine ‘what should I do next?’ And Mr. Balanchine responded ‘I think you should do The Firebird, it was a big hit for New York City Ballet, as you know, and it’s gonna be a big hit for Dance Theatre of Harlem as well.’ And it really was,” Garland stated.
DTH’s “Firebird” reimagines the folktale in a Caribbean setting, with John Taras’ choreography, Stravinsky’s music, and gorgeous costumes and set design by the legendary Geoffrey Holder. Garland, ever the arts and black cultural historian — considers Holder’s work one of the original antecedents of Afrofuturism. In recent times the world has experienced examples of this fascinating black cultural and artistic movement and philosophy, via filmmaker Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster Black Panther films, the fiction of Octavia E. Butler, and much of the earlier work of Janelle Monáe.
Later in the week I called Alexandra Hutchinson, who is in her eighth season with the professional company. A DMV native, she stars in “Firebird,” and was also an original cast member of Garland’s “Higher Ground.” The company is going into its 58th season, per Garland, and Alexandra, though still very young, has been able to experience and participate in DTH’s more recent artistic and cultural achievements. “I was able to be in the company for the 50th anniversary. I was able to work with Arthur Mitchell in the studio before he passed away… I’ve had some really beautiful moments getting to be at a young age and seeing some of my peers that aren’t here anymore, kind of show and pave the way…” she said, during our chat.
For her principal role in “Firebird,” Alexandra has worked with Garland, but learned the part from Charmaine Hunter. She’s also studied the work of the prior DTH dancers whose performances as the character were acclaimed, including Stephanie Dabney and Tai Jimenez. “It’s really cool to not only give them a nod, and reference the OG Firebirds, but then bring my own interpretation to it as well,” she stated. The return of “Firebird,” which will be supported on stage by dancers from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, is not the only work being presented at the Norfolk performances. The program will also include “Donizetti Variations” and “Take Me With You,” as well as movements 1 and 4 of Garland’s “Symphony No.1,” which is a ballet to the work of composer Adolphus Hailstork. “I’m really looking forward to performing with a live orchestra,” said Alexandra, regarding the upcoming VAF performances. “And also, the last time we came, we celebrated Lorraine Graves… I always think about her when we’re there.”
WANT TO GO?
Dance Theatre of Harlem
Firebird with Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Presented by Virginia Arts Festival
March 20-22
Chrysler Hall
AND MORE….
Dance Theatre of Harlem
March 24
CNU’s Ferguson Center
This program will feature New Bach, a neoclassical ballet created by Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Robert Garland and first performed in September 2001, immediately after 9/11; Passage of Being, which premiered this year, is a circular and physical piece unfolding in three cinematic movements set to the evocative music of Oscar-nominated composer Ryan Lott “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; and Return, a soulful, high-octane celebration to the timeless sounds of James Brown and Aretha Franklin.