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Photography by Rachel Neville
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Courtesy of Dance St. Louis
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Courtesy of Dance St. Louis
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Courtesy of Dance St. Louis
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Courtesy of Dance St. Louis
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Courtesy of Dance St. Louis
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Courtesy of Dance St. Louis
Co-founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell, the first African-American principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, and Karel Shook, ballet master of the Dutch National Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem was the first all-black classical ballet company in the U.S., as well as the first black company to perform at London’s Royal Opera House. It also toured South Africa in 1992 for its Dancing Through Barriers tour, which resulted in a traveling youth-outreach program that’s still going strong. The company went on hiatus in 2004, but came back stronger than ever last year under artistic director Virginia Johnson, its former star ballerina.
Johnson is upholding the company’s legacy of training exquisite dancers who perform all over the world, and her current stripped-down company of 17 dancers hails from a diverse array of backgrounds. The ensemble’s repertoire has expanded beyond classical ballet to include neoclassical and contemporary works, including George Balanchine’s Agon and Alvin Ailey’s The Lark Ascending. “It’s a good time to be an African-American–based company talking about our role in this country beyond, OK, jazz,” Johnson told The New York Times. “There’s so much more material to explore. And that’s what I want Dance Theatre of Harlem to do, to bring that to our stage—that we aren’t one subject, one story, but so many stories.”
Dance St. Louis Presents Dance Theatre of Harlem
$40 to $65
November 7 & 8
8 p.m. Fri, 2 & 8 p.m. Sat
Touhill Center for the Performing Arts
1 University Blvd, St Louis, MO 63121
