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The audience
started cheering when Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Paunika Jones began a sassy dance at
the start of Robert Garland’s Return. Performed to five songs (James Brown and Aretha
Franklin recordings) that gave the company a chance to strut and jive, this crowd pleaser
demonstrated that company founder Arthur Mitchell has more than fulfilled his original
intent. Today there is no question that black
dancers can perform ballet with the best of them. And
when the dancers are as strong and stylish as the current members of DTH, watching them is
a pleasure unto itself.
The opening program of DTH’s
current visit under the auspices of Cal Performances also demonstrated that Mitchell has
other serious purposes in mind. Like Robert
Joffrey, who constructed an evening’s program to offer variety and a lesson in
movement to the audience, Mitchell built this program in a similar way. The opening piece, Viraa, which received its west coast premiere at
this performance, was a neo-classical exercise in the Balanchine tradition. The second work, also a west coast premiere, told
a dramatic story. The final piece, Return, was clearly designed to send the audience
home wishing for more.
The other serious intent was the
quest for new choreographic talent. Every
ballet on this program was commissioned jointly by DTH and Arthur Mitchell. Mitchell is himself investing in his
company’s future in a way that few artistic directors do. The choreographers represented included a teacher
at the DTH school (Laveen Naidu, choreographer of Viraa)
and the company’s ballet master, Augustus van Heerden, who choreographed Passion of the Blood based on Garc’a
Lorca’s Blood Wedding. It is very fitting that the Board of Directors of
DTH has paid homage to Mitchell by declaring that henceforth the company will be known as
Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Although none of these three
ballets is a great work, each has merits. Viraa is constructed with fluidity and a secure
knowledge of the Balanchine vocabulary. Like
its music, Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 2,
which was composed in 1952, the ballet recalls Balanchine’s great works from the late
40s and early 50s, particularly The Four
Temperaments and Concerto Barocco. These are models worth emulating. Choreographer Naidu moves the lead couple and the
six supporting couples in a variety of combinations that keep interest alive. The lead woman, danced with intensity by Andrea
Long, is the emotional center of the work. Initially
hinting at doubt and worry, she emerges triumphant in the end as she is held aloft.
Passion of the Blood was the least successful work
of the evening. Telling a complicated story
in dance is a challenge, even to experienced choreographers. Van Heerden has synthesized the story of a
duplicitous male, who abandons his wife and runs off with a bride. Both he and the groom die in a knife fight. Sadly, this dramatic ending delivers no punch,
despite committed performances by the dancers. Part
of the problem is the music, a cello concerto by Jesœs Villa-Rojo, with the interpolation
of music by Tarrega and Albeniz for the wedding celebration. The fight scene was staged effectively, but when
the final blows were dealt, the music just nattered away and provided no climax to support
the dancers.
Garland’s Return, which was first presented in 1999, is about
having fun, and the company tackles the piece with vivacity. There is a lot of flash and showmanship, with
rapid turns and jumps. Sexual innuendo is an
important part of the songs that are used, and Garland has captured it with wit. “Call Me,” in which Lenore Pavlakos
entices three men, is a highlight. The
closing number, “Superbad,” featured a gleeful Donald Williams. The dancers had a good time and their enthusiasm
was shared by the audience.
Berkeley, CA, January 23, 2002 - Larry Campbell
