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New York Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: Dance Theater of Harlem, Reshaped and Back at City Center
When Robert Garland was chosen to take over as the artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem in 2023, it was the ultimate inside hire. After performing with the company for 13 years, he spent more than 20 as its resident choreographer and the director of its school. The choice seemed to promise continuity, and so far, continuity is what Garland has delivered. Still, a new director inevitably reshapes a company's identity. Since Garland — unlike his predecessor, Virginia Johnson — is a choreographer, it makes sense to watch his choreography for signs of change. The company's programs at New York City Center this week feature the first work he's made since taking over: 'The Cookout.' Garland's choreographic signature is a combination of classical ballet influenced by his chief model, George Balanchine, and Black vernacular dance, what he has called 'Harlem swag.' 'The Cookout' is in this mode, applying ballet vocabulary to tracks of funk, neo-soul and disco while mixing in the kind of party steps that would normally go with such music. At its best, this gambit can reveal hidden continuities, mainly of rhythm, as well as the code-switching versatility of dancers. But the juxtaposition also risks cross-bleeding dilution, since classical ballet and African-diasporic forms hold the body in opposite ways, particularly around the pelvis. Ballet dancers can have trouble getting down — stiffening swag steps, pulling them up — and ballet made casual can become merely sloppy. That's a limitation in 'The Cookout,' though ultimately the piece is just innocuously slight. Garland divides it into four sections, three about kinds of dignity (work, culture, sorrow) followed by one about joy. Work is weakly represented by a broom; culture, by a few of the intricate handshakes known as daps; joy, by red Solo cups. Moments of magic, as when the women in the sorrow section are suddenly lifted off at its end, are scarce. Garland has had more success in choosing his company's repertory. Picking up on one of Johnson's final moves — commissioning a piece by William Forsythe — he has added another, 'The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude.' That 1996 work, set to part of a Schubert symphony, is a challenging exercise in the 19th-century style of divertissement. Here and there, through Stephen Galloway's floppy-frisbee tutus or a snuck-in body roll, the work winks, reminding you that it isn't that old. The less exact the dancing, the less thrilling it is. And while the Harlem dancers start tight, they soon loosen under the stress, especially the women, who struggle with the demands of the quick pointework. Alexandra Hutchinson holds her poise, and David Wright gives and gives with gusto. But the company, which looked terrific in Forsythe's much less classical 'Blake Works IV,' doesn't have this one under its belt yet. Jodie Gates, the former Forsythe dancer who staged 'Vertiginous,' also choreographed a world premiere, 'Passage of Being.' Set to dreamy indie-electronica by Ryan Lott and his band, Son Lux, Gates's work is all misty, silken flow, circling and spiraling and threading long loops into loops. The six Harlem dancers take to this very well, capturing not just the fluency but also the little embroideries and pauses for breath that bring the choreography to life. These are good choices, giving the dancers something they can handle and something to reach for. More important, though, is Garland's handling of the company's connection to Balanchine: the mentor to Garland's mentor and the company's co-founder Arthur Mitchell. And here, he's on a roll. After Balanchine's 'Allegro Brilliante' in Johnson's last season came 'Pas de Dix' in Garland's first. Now, he has added 'Donizetti Variations,' and it's another winner. 'Donizetti,' like 'Vertiginous,' is in the mode of a 19th-century divertissement. But while using similar formulas, it's much more formally playful and inventive. It's a fast, fun game of threes, and the dancers, coached by the former New York City Ballet star Kyra Nichols, find the right calibration of energy to make it bounce and fizz. They deliver the work's many interwoven garlands and close canons with a confectionary exactitude that is composedly thrilling. As the central couple, Hutchinson and Wright shine: she strong enough to be soft, he adding extra torque and bend to spins that are truly vertiginous. This is a 'Donizetti' danced with a dignity that doesn't preclude a party-like atmosphere. Traditionally, it opens a program, but Garland put it at the end on Thursday. There, it did what 'The Cookout' tried to do: close with joy.
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
At Dance Theater of Harlem, ‘Mr. G Has a Plan'
Putting a program of ballets together is like composing a delicious meal. An enticing beginning, something more substantial to follow, and a finale that leaves 'em wanting more. Creating that perfect menu is one of the most central and difficult tasks for a ballet company's artistic director, who must also consider how the mix of works will develop and challenge the dancers technically and artistically. 'I love thinking about all this,' said Robert Garland, the artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem, which will perform at New York City Center from Thursday to Sunday. 'No one really talks about it, but it's one of the most important parts of the job.' Garland, who danced with Dance Theater of Harlem from 1985 to 1998, was the company's resident choreographer before taking the helm in 2023. For his second New York season, he has programmed George Balanchine's 'Donizetti Variations,' William Forsythe's 'Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude,' a new work ('Passage of Being') by Jodie Gates, and two of his own pieces, 'The Cookout' and 'Return.' His intent with the programming, he said, goes back to his first experience of seeing Dance Theater of Harlem as a young boy in Philadelphia in the 1970s. 'There was 'Forces of Rhythm' by Louis Johnson, which mixed ballet and funky movement, and then the 'Corsaire' pas de deux' — a swashbuckling display of balletic virtuosity. 'I was just blown away that you could move from one to the other.' He added, 'What I always want is for the works to speak back and forth; to have a conversation within the dancers' bodies.' Balanchine is always part of that conversation at Dance Theater of Harlem, Garland said, since Arthur Mitchell, who founded the company with Karel Shook, was the first Black principal dancer at the Balanchine-led New York City Ballet, and brought many of his mentor's ballets into the repertoire. And besides, Garland said, 'he is my choreographic hero.' For this season, Garland decided on the effervescent 'Donizetti Variations' (1960) set to music from the opera 'Don Sebastian.' The ballet, in 13 sections, is essentially a long string of enchanting divertissements, asking for an unobtrusive allegro virtuosity from a principal couple and an ensemble of six women and three men. 'It's a really challenging ballet,' said Kyra Nichols, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, who staged the work on Dance Theater of Harlem. 'It's fast, with a lot of jumps and technical difficulties that aren't obvious. And it must look effortless and fun.' A challenge for the dancers, Nichols said, was to move with speed and attack but also know how to 'vary the texture; it can't all be the same intensity.' Kouadio Davis, who is performing in all the ballets over the course of the three-day City Center run, said he hadn't initially understood why Garland had chosen the very classical, prettily balletic 'Donizetti.' But after learning the work, 'it just clicked,' he said. 'It's the perfect Balanchine piece for us right now, technically challenging in a way we are ready for.' The choice of Forsythe's 'Vertiginous,' set to the finale of Schubert's 'Symphony No. 9,' was a way of building on skills the company had developed through dancing his 'Blake Works IV (The Barre Project)' last year. Forsythe, an American choreographer, has explored ballet's principles and techniques in a way that has helped to shape classical dance over the past few decades. 'I really appreciate the way Mr. Forsythe and Mr. Balanchine use rhythm and syncopation; it's a very American approach to musicality,' Garland said. 'Forsythe really opens up the Schubert score to the ear of the dancer; it teaches them a kind of freedom within the constraints.' 'Vertiginous' was originally choreographed in 1996 for three women and two men. But for Dance Theater, Forsythe asked Gates to create a new version, using six women alongside the male pair. A sparkling display of the traditional properties of ballet — classical technique, tutus, pointe shoes, a friendly display of formal manners — 'Vertiginous' is also notoriously tricky. 'One ballerina said she would rather go through childbirth again!' Forsythe said of a previous staging. 'It has such high technical demand in the musicality, the detail and coordination, and it shifts dramatically from step to step at such high speed that not only is your body challenged, but your mind, too.' 'It was time to kick it up a notch,' Garland said. 'Vertiginous,' Davis said, is a showcase for the dancers. 'It's so technical: It starts in fifth position, then a plié, the first step you do in ballet class, and it's like you are going through the whole class, showing what you know about ballet.' He added, 'Forsythe told us, 'The dancer loves to untie little knots.' In his pieces, you can always find a new way to get the knot out with more risk, or excitement or cool.' The final piece of the programming puzzle, Garland said, was commissioning a new work from Gates. 'Having a new piece created on you is the pinnacle of artistic expression,' he said. He chose Gates, he said, partly because she had an existing relationship with the dancers from staging the Forsythe pieces and knew their capabilities. And, he said, 'she is one of the few women making classical dance.' 'Passage of Being,' set to three compositions by Ryan Lott, will be performed after 'Vertiginous,' and is very different in tone, Gates said. 'I'm very attracted to movement with circular momentum, looping, threading, unthreading.' The work, she added, 'may appear balletic in nature, sometimes even romantic, but it's important to me that I continually empower the women, ask them to be an equal partner in duet work and have autonomy.' Alexandra Hutchinson, a performer in the work, said Gates 'asks us to think about connection and relationship rather than how the line looks; that's the challenge.' As for his own works at City Center, Garland said they were essentially 'about Black joy, coming together.' 'This program,' he continued, 'gives me what Arthur Mitchell gave me in the '70s — that all these things can exist in the same space and nurture one another.' Or as Davis put it, 'I think Mr. G has a plan.'
Boston Globe
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Christian Holder, longtime star of the Joffrey Ballet, dies at 75
Mr. Holder was every bit as varied in his own artistic pursuits. In addition to dancing, he was a choreographer; a costume designer for Tina Turner and other stars, as well as for several ballets; a cabaret singer; a painter; a theater director; and a playwright. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Still, his legacy was built on his 13-year run with the Joffrey, the mold-shattering company founded by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, His time with the company began in 1966, when he was 17. A lithe 6 feet, 4 inches tall, he was 'majestic and pantherlike' onstage, Sappington said in an interview. Advertisement Virginia Johnson, a former principal dancer and artistic director at Dance Theater of Harlem, called him a study in contrasts, capable of 'dancing with power or softness, whatever the role required.' Still, she added, 'his physical presence — height, muscularity — made him terrifying' in one of his most famous roles: as Death in 'The Green Table,' by German dancer and choreographer Kurt Jooss. Mr. Holder began performing that linchpin role in 1969. Appearing in 'skull-like whiteface,' as Anna Kisselgoff observed in a review in The New York Times, his character claimed a string of personalities caught in the tangle of war. "Mr. Holder's debut here was impressive, with a proper feel for the changes in attitude required of his role," Kisselgoff wrote. She had quibbles, including that his performance was "almost too nimble at the start," but she added that these were mere details in an "indubitably strong performance." Advertisement His time with the Joffrey coincided with the company's golden era, Mr. Holder wrote in a 2006 retrospective in Dance magazine, particularly his early years, when sweeping social changes were influencing the company's sensibility and direction. "Women were beginning to reevaluate their possibilities as citizens," he wrote. "There were civil rights marches and boycotts, protests against mind-numbing atrocities committed in response to Black people seeking the right to vote and a higher education." Mr. Holder also found himself on the cultural vanguard in 1970, when he took over the male role in 'Astarte,' a multimedia erotic duet that he performed with Nancy Robinson. The ballet, with a rock score by the band Crome Syrcus, had been featured on the cover of Time magazine in March 1968. ''Astarte' was immensely taxing, with slow motion, sculptural partnering going against the intense music, followed by an aggressively sexual duet with lifts and contortions of every kind for the woman,' he wrote in Dance magazine. Following performances, the dancers 'would stagger out of the theater, completely drained, aching, yet exhilarated.' Mr. Holder encountered the same sense of hippie-era abandon in 'Trinity' (1970), a ballet by Arpino that blended rock music and the spirit of youthful rebellion and featured no story but ample loose-limbed improvisation. Arthur Christian Holder was born June 18, 1949, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. His mother, Sheila (Clarke) Holder, was, like his father, a professional dancer. He got an early glimpse of the spotlight at age 3, when he appeared with his father's dance company in a performance celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He received formal training in dance, as well in theater, as a student at the Corona Academy (now the Corona Theater School) in London. Advertisement At 15, he moved to New York on a scholarship to the Martha Graham School, but he soon transferred to the High School of Performing Arts (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). It was there that Joffrey discovered him and brought him aboard as an apprentice. Mr. Holder went on to work with a number of acclaimed choreographers, including Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, and Jerome Robbins. Among his many acclaimed performances, he earned raves in José Limón's "The Moor's Pavane," based on Shakespeare's "Othello," which opened at the City Center in New York in 1973. As the Moor, he was "powerful and dominating," Clive Barnes of the Times wrote in a review, "making his eventual spiritual collapse all the more tragic." After he left the Joffrey in 1979, Mr. Holder was the featured dancer in the San Francisco Opera productions 'La Gioconda' (1979), featuring Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto; 'Samson and Delilah' (1980), with Shirley Verrett and Plácido Domingo; and 'Aida' (1981), starring Pavarotti and Margaret Price. All those productions were choreographed by Sappington. Later projects included choreographing the American Ballet Theater productions of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1993) and "Weren't We Fools?" (2000), featuring songs by Cole Porter. No immediate family members survive. Mr. Holder moved back to London in 2009. A year later, his paintings were exhibited at a group gallery show that also featured his father's work. In 2015, he presented an autobiographical one-man show, 'At Home and Abroad,' at Crazy Coqs, a London cabaret. He later wrote and directed the play 'Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act,' about a storied Ballets Russes dancer and actress from the Belle Époque, which opened at the Playground Theater in London in 2021. Advertisement Looking back on his Joffrey years in Dance magazine, he wrote, 'We were a chosen group in the right place at the right time.' "We championed dance at college campuses," he added. "We danced to rock 'n' roll. Some purists didn't take us seriously, but we made our mark." This article originally appeared in
