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Dance Theater of Harlem at CSUN
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Dance Theater of Harlem at CSUN
By Jonathan Weichsel
The Dance Theater of Harlem came to CSUN for a one night performance as part of their Dance for America tour, a ten state tour spanning seven weeks.
The show was an educational, informative, entertaining evening of dance ranging from neo-classical to modern. The evening was hosted by Keith Saunders, the director of the Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble. Saunders introduced each dance and provided interesting facts about ballet and ballet techniques, as well as the ensemble and its unique history. For example, one of the things that make the Harlem Ensemble unique is its commitment to be a multi-ethnic ensemble. Traditionally, ballerinas wear pink tights, but as part of the Harlem Ensemble's commitment to being multi-ethnic, each ballerina's tights are individually dyed the color of the dancer's skin tone. This creates the beautiful effect of an uninterrupted line from the tip of the ballerina's finger to the tip of her toe, and also serves to celebrate the ensemble's diversity.
The evening started with the dancers doing their warm-up exercises on stage, with Saunders explaining to the audience what was going on. Then the dancers demonstrated the basic positions and movements of ballet for the audience, with Saunders narrating. The purpose of all this was to educate audiences who might be new to ballet.
The Harlem Ensemble has a repertoire of over one hundred and twenty five pieces. Audience members at CSUN were treated to five of these. The first dance piece of the evening was The Joplin Dances, an energetic ballet set to rag time music, including the music of Scott Joplin. The piece featured live accompaniment by pianist Vadim Rubinskiy.
Saunders then came back on stage and introduced the next two pieces, Fragments and Episode, both done in a more modern style. Fragments had a primal, sexual energy to it. For me Episode, a dance piece about the relationships between men and women, was the highlight of the evening. It was a very sensual dance featuring wild black and red costumes. The dancers danced very close to each other, and really showed off their ballerina flexibility.
After Episode, Saunders came back on stage and introduced the interactive portion of the evening, when three lucky audience members got to get up on stage and dance with three ballerinas. Dancing on stage with a ballerina is one of those things that make it onto many people's list of things to do before you die, and I couldn't help myself, so I raised my hand and volunteered to dance with a ballerina. Let me tell you, it is a lot of hard work. The male ballerina needs to offer a lot of physical support to the female, and I kept on dropping my ballerina and swinging her all over the place. But, her partner was always close and caught her each time. However, it was a lot of fun and I think my ineptitude offered the audience a great deal of entertainment, while teaching a lesson in the challenges inherent in mastering a very athletic form of dance.
Next we were treated to a jazzy piano solo by Vadim Rubinskiy, followed by a ballet set to the music of Bach, and then a question and answer period, during which the audience asked Saunders and the dancers any pressing questions they had about ballet and what it is like training to be a ballerina.
Finally, we were treated to Mother Popcorn, a dance piece set to the music of James Brown.
The Dance Theater of Harlem was founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. The Dance Theater of Harlem School offers exceptional training in dance to five hundred students year round in historic Harlem. The company's resident choreographer, Robert Garland, who choreographed three out of the five pieces presented, describes his style as post-modern urban neo-classicism.
To learn more about the dance theater of Harlem, including information about their dance school as well as upcoming performances, visit them on the web at www.dancetheatreofharlem.com/
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