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Precision in Programming and Practice

Moreso than many Balanchine offshoot companies, the Dance Theater of Harlem—founded by the New York City Ballet principal dancer Arthur Mitchell in 1969—keeps the Balanchine ethos at the forefront of its programming. Even the New York premiere of Artistic Director Robert Garland’s “The Cookout,” which included a section inspired by the dap handshake and featured dancers drinking from red solo cups, evoked Balanchine often. Ambitiously, DTH presented three more debuts on opening night as well: two company premieres—William Forsythe’s “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” and Balanchine’s “Donizetti Variations”—and a world premiere, Jodie Gates’s “Passage of Being.” This was a demanding quartet of ballets, but the troupe rose to the challenges with verve.

Performance

Dance Theatre of Harlem: “Cookout” by Robert Garland / “Donizetti Variations” by George Balanchine / “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” by William Forsythe / “Passage of Being” by Jodie Gates

Place

Words

Faye Arthurs

Alexandra Hutchinson and David Wright in “Donizetti Variations” by George Balanchine. Photograph by Rachel Papo

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“The Cookout” opened the show on the first night of the company’s New York City Center run, though it was boisterous enough to close the next. In the program notes, Garland explained how he was inspired by the three dignities of Black communities: Work, Culture, and Sorrow. These themes were lightly referenced: as when Micah Bullard did a brief pas de deux with a mop in the “Dignity of Work (#Blackjobs)” movement like a funky Cinderella (a Cinderfella?). But overall, the piece seemed to be more about the Dignity of Grooving. To a mixtape of jams by Jill Scott, Cymande, Caron Wheeler, and Brass Construction, Garland threaded a slew of popular dances with some very Balanchinian syncopated passés and échappés. Kouadio Davis and Delaney Washington were especially adept in bridging the casual and classical lanes in solo moments.

There were references to specific Balanchine ballets too. A lovely dance for four women, expressing the Dignity of Sorrow, quoted repeatedly from Balanchine’s “Serenade.” Garland poignantly reversed “Serenade’s” famous opening pose, in which dancers hold their right hands up to shield their bravely uplifted faces from a bright light. Garland’s mournful women extended their left arms up while looking down and away in the opposite direction. They seemed to be pushing against something that was too painful to contemplate. The women bourréed together and held hands like in “Serenade’s” Russian Dance too. At the end of the finale, which celebrated Black Joy (a kind of happiness that is “multi-layered, and hard won” per Garland), the men carried the women offstage in the skimming split lifts from the Sanguinic section of Balanchine’s “The Four Temperaments.” 

Alexandra Hutchinson and David Wright in “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” by William Forsythe. Photograph by Steven Pisano

The middle of the program focused on Forsythe and his disciples. His notoriously difficult “Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” (from 1996) led off, as staged by former Forsythe dancer Jodie Gates, followed by Gates’s own premiere: “Passage of Being.” Forsythe choreographed “Blake Works IV (The Barre Project)” on DTH in 2023, and with the addition of “Vertiginous” to their repertory, the company is turning out to be among the best current interpreters of his works. “Vertiginous” is an obstacle course of technical challenges, and Alexandra Hutchinson, Kamala Saara, and Ingrid Silva looked particularly comfortable whipping out the numerous stepover turns and balance-shifting moves in their Jetson pancake tutus (by Stephen Galloway). Micah Bullard and David Wright were wonderful as they attacked Forsythe’s many tricks. The entire octet appeared to revel in pushing their positions to the extreme, as is required in Forsythe’s ballets; he distorted classical lines even further than Balanchine.                  

Gates’s dreamy “Passage of Being” was the opposite in almost every way, which made for a great diptych. After the bombast, tight structure, neon palette, and the lively Schubert symphony score of “Vertiginous,” Gates’s dance opened on a quietly dark stage, lit by Michael Korsch. To soft piano music (the score was by Ryan Lott, Son Lux, Rob Moose, and yMusic), the dancers trickled in wearing pale silk jammies and nightgowns by Martha Chamberlain. (Pastel pajamas are big right now.) The cast of six was aswirl until Saara and Derek Brockington came together for a romantic pas de deux. This ardent duet was nonstop, with tour catches to split spins, churning promenades, and decadently draped, full-press backbend lifts in coupé à la “Romeo and Juliet.” The pair was wonderfully fluid in all the hard partnering, so that their fraught reunion near the end of the ballet was extra sad after all that freewheeling trust. Saara frantically soloed in silence at the ballet’s close as the rest of the cast watched, huffing audibly as the curtain descended. Where Forsythe pushed solo technique to new limits, Gates ratcheted up the partnering and emotional components. I must single out Luis Fernando Rego for some exciting passes too.

Ethan Wilson and Derek Brockington in “Passage of Being” by Jodie Gates. Photograph by Steven Pisano

Though Balanchine’s “Donizetti Variations” is traditionally an opener, it closed on opening night. It worked just fine in the final slot, thanks to the bicycle bells in Donizetti’s score and the group’s rousing emboîté cancans. There was an unusual inversion in Kyra Nichols’s staging too: the shorter corps women danced the first pas de trois (which is about devouring space and off-balance partnering) while the taller ones performed the second (which focuses on sprightly precision). This flip worked less well.   

Hutchinson and Wright were back for “Donizetti” and better than ever. She made the hippy switches to the ritardando in her solo sweetly playful, and she covered real ground in the changements on pointe in the coda. Wright was jolly and explosive, getting great height in his beaten split jumps and turning with terrific speed in his dance with the corps women and in the coda and finale. The corps seemed less at ease; they needed to travel much more and dance bigger throughout. It was funny that all the dancers seemed unbridled in the Forsythe, which pushes Balanchine technique, and a tad cautious in “Donizetti.” It seemed to be a difference in mental approach, as if they thought that the “Donizetti” was more squarely classical so they should be more reserved too. But although the positions are less exaggerated in Balanchine, his dances need the same energy and sweep.      

Still, they had shining moments. Kira Robinson was cutely swishy in the first section. Crystal Serrano had pep and crisp legs. And Lindsey Donnell had one of the best takes I’ve seen on the sneaky, toe-stubbing vignette. She was charmingly clear in this silly solo, which can be hard to sell. She was impressive in her two other ballets on the program as well; she grows in technique and artistry every season. The same could be said of DTH in general, as the company smartly expands its repertory with new ballets and neoclassical gems that stay true to its mission statement.       

Faye Arthurs

Faye Arthurs is a former ballet dancer with New York City Ballet. She chronicled her time as a professional dancer in her blog Thoughts from the Paint. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Fordham University. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their sons.

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