Dance Theatre of Harlem has risen from the dead with stunning aplomb and force. It’s not a miracle, though, except perhaps of perseverance and hard work. When the company announced a yearlong hiatus in 2004, it had 44 dancers and a $2.3 million debt. Eight years later it returned from the grave to the stage thanks to former DTH performer Virginia Johnson, artistic director since 2009.
Founded by New York City Ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell in 1969, Dance Theatre of Harlem has downsized to 18 sleek, new superbly trained performers. Its sterling return to the Auditorium, through Sunday, features three unique pieces that all marry African-American traditions with ballet. All are deeply serious—uplifting, yes, but not easy or obvious.
DTH resident choreographer Robert Garland, another longtime dancer, contributes two pieces. “Gloria” (2012), set to Francis Poulenc’s 1961 vocal and orchestral work, is an act of faith, of community. Dedicated to Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, a congregation that just said no to segregation in 1808, “Gloria” conveys joy, sorrow and hope as subtly as Poulenc’s composition. Young students from Chicago Multicultural Dance Center, founded by former DTH dancer Homer Bryant, open and close the work, movingly embodying continuity.
A slim narrative follows the emotional perambulations of Poulenc’s six movements, two of them distinctly mournful, their moods also reflected in costumes ranging from bright yellow-green to dark blue. A highly musical but rather unsurprising balletic matrix makes the more feeling, gestural moments of “Gloria” pop: Da’Von Doane’s dropping sweep of arms to the floor; Jenelle Figgins’ commanding pointed finger at the audience, her benedictory tap on Doane’s head.
Bold choices mark Ulysses Dove’s 1993 “Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven,” choreographed three years before he died of AIDS and first performed by Dance Theatre of Harlem last year. Dove’s clipped, icy, often quick choreography contrasts sharply with the slow, dark current of Arvo Part’s obscurely moving “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten,” a short piece Dove repeats three times; he also adds a section of just its pealing bell.
Repetitive in multiple ways and studded with religious gestures, “Dancing on the Front Porch” is not mysterious in its intent. But its stuttering repetitions of grief, so true to the experiences of illness and loss, gather force inimitably.
By contrast Garland’s 1999 “Return,” set to music by James Brown and Aretha Franklin, is a goof—a serious goof, mixing ballet with funk and soul. It can be a chunky mix, but when it works, as it does in the section set to Brown’s “Superbad,” it’s fun on a superhuman scale.
3 1/2 STARS
When: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday
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Where: Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $30-$95 at 800-982-2787 or auditoriumtheatre.org