Beauty and Bravura under the Stars

It was a picture-perfect evening at the Hollywood Bowl for music and dance under the stars. The last concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s classical series, it was to have featured conductor and former Dudamel Fellow, Jonathan Heyward, but the Franco-British maestra, Stephanie Childress, led the ensemble instead. And as each concert this season was, in essence, an audition to replace outgoing music director Gustavo Dudamel, who decamps for the New York Philharmonic at the end of the 2025-26 season, Childress proved a strong contender, with the gorgeous Dance Theatre of Harlem also offering its particular blend of beauty, boldness and bravura in two of the evening’s works.

Performance

Dance Theatre of Harlem with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, choreography by Robert Garland

Place

The Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California, September 11, 2025

Words

Victoria Looseleaf

Alexandra Hutchinson and Micah Bullard of Dance Theatre of Harlem in “Romeo and Juliet” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Photograph by Elizabeth Asher

In the curtain raiser, Tchaikovsky’s 23-minute “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture,” Childress proved all business—and then some—while at the same time, she was able to coax sumptuous sounds from the Phil. Notable were the stellar principal harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, as well as the tympanists, where the sounds of foreboding doom accentuated the tragedy to come. (And if the omnipresent melodies sounded familiar, they were used to pitch classical vinyl discs for the Record-Of-The-Month Club back in the day, the earworms still prevalent now.)

From tragedy to ebullience, Childress then led the band in Adolphus Hailstork’s Symphony No. 1. Born in 1941, Hailstork composed the opus in 1988, and with elements of West African, Latin American and Asian music mixed with Black spiritual traditions, the four movements were a study in propulsion and brio. Add to the mix the dazzling Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the combination was irresistible.

Choreographed by DTH artistic director Robert Garland, the work featured a quintet of dancers in powder blue and silver costumes designed by Katy A. Freeman. Sassy, jazzy, and full of oomph, the performers—Ingrid Silva, Micah Bullard, Derek Brockington, Delaney Washington and Alexandra Hutchinson—could have been on stage at New York’s famed Apollo Theatre.

There were lifts galore, pirouettes that spanned the long but narrow floor, and gorgeous bourrées, while unisons also ruled, as the Bernstein-like dissonances, Copland-esque melodies and a rhythmic nod or two to Gershwin, offered the orchestra a chance to swing, as well.

At 21 minutes, the work was a perfect fit for the dancers, who, while offering sky-high kicks and even the occasional split, emanated joy, a much needed feeling these days. The cherry on this terpsichorean sundae was the presence of Hailstork himself, who bounded on stage afterwards to take a well-deserved bow.

Dance Theatre of Harlem in “Romeo and Juliet” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Photograph by Elizabeth Asher

After intermission, Childress offered a vibrant, 35-minute rendering of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” Suite No. 2. Op. 64, bursting out of the gate with the über-popular “Dance of the Knights.” But for some inexplicable reason, DTH did not appear during the first five sections, the troupe’s absence particularly noticeable in the “Dance” portion, although the music, composed in 1935 for the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet—decidedly one of the more gorgeous ballet scores ever written—would have, perhaps, seemed enough in different circumstances.

But Robert Garland obviously had other ideas. His program notes stated that, “rather than retelling Shakespeare’s story in traditional form, this work delves into the emotional and thematic layers of “Romeo and Juliet”—love, tension, fate—without tracing a linear plot,” that it’s “a fresh perspective on familiar terrain . . . ”

Fine, but because his wonderful dancers only performed for the two final portions, this writer felt that more terrain could have been trod, i.e., the troupe deserved more stage time. Alas, it was not to be, with members first appearing in the fifth section, “Dance of the Antillean Maidens.” Featuring Ariana Dickerson, Carly Greene, Alexandra Rene Jones and Brockington, and clad in Freeman’s all-white costumes, the purity matched the movements: fluid, angelic, and ethereal, the dancers’ swooping arms seemingly calling to heaven.

Delaney Washington and Derek Brockington of Dance Theatre of Harlem in “Romeo and Juliet” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Photograph by Elizabeth Asher

With the finale, “Romeo at the Tomb of Juliet,” the ill-fated lovers—Washington’s Juliet and Brockington’s Romeo—luxuriated in the sweeping melodies, with jetés and fouettés abounding. Here again, various groupings gave a sheen of nobility to the choreography, which was expansive, at times, ritualistic, and deeply, it seemed, rooted in their bodies. Immaculate footwork and elongated torsos meshed with the superlative score. Among the other dancers were Kamala Saara, Kouadio Davis, Renan Cerdero, Kouadio Davis and Michaela Martin-Mason.

While the lead couple’s pairing was majestic, and the company looked exceptional, one longed for more of this timeless tale. Indeed, the Bowl has, over the years in its 103-year history, presented world-class dance in the Cahuenga Pass. From Martha Graham Dance Company and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to the Joffrey Ballet and members of the Paris Opera Ballet—all having demonstrated their movement chops since “Elysia,” an evening-long ballet presented in 1932 to celebrate that year’s Summer Olympic Games—it was a pleasure to see Dance Theatre of Harlem join that illustrative roster.

With a slight breeze in the air and the temperature a perfect 72, it was a night to remember, and an ideal way to close the LA Phil’s season. How lucky were we!

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

comments

Featured

REVIEWS | Gracia Haby

Heartfelt Moments

The Australian Ballet’s “Signature Works,” as a whole, is a compact and varied celebration of dance in the moment.

REVIEWS | Róisín O'Brien

American Icons

The Joffrey Ballet’s lithe and strong dancers take on four historic works in this mixed-bill “American Icons” programme.

REVIEWS | Cecilia Whalen

Changing Times

In Trisha Brown's 1983 “Set and Reset,” dancers float in and out of the wings like bubbles.

REVIEWS | Victoria Looseleaf

Glitter Revolution

Talk about perfection! While the countdown is on, as Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the world-class Los Angeles Philharmonic, prepares to exit the stage for the New York Philharmonic (a big boohoo), his presence last weekend at Walt Disney Concert Hall further cemented his status as musical genius, tastemaker and catalyst for good.