It was, as Robert Garland stated from the stage, a momentous event for him. Greeting the gang at his first New York Metropolis Middle season because the creative director of Dance Theater of Harlem, he spoke warmly of the corporate’s co-founder: “Arthur Mitchell was my mentor, my hero, and he’s watching down from upstairs saying, ‘Get it proper, Robert.’”
The road earned laughs, however had the ring of fact — Mitchell was an exacting director. And on Thursday, Garland confirmed that he was getting some issues proper: Dance Theater, now in its 55th season, has a classic type of glow. It isn’t prefer it was within the strong outdated days, however it’s refreshed. The corporate, together with its dancers, appears to be extra positive of itself: It’s rising into a way of fashion.
Honoring Mitchell was a reminder of why Dance Theater, born after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, began within the first place. Together with showcasing the transformative energy of ballet, Garland writes in this system, Mitchell used Dance Theater as a method for social justice partially by the use of its repertoire: George Balanchine ballets had been carried out alongside works by Black choreographers like Geoffrey Holder. That thought-about, caring curation stays.
Whereas there isn’t any Garland premiere this season — he needs to get to know his dancers higher earlier than he creates a brand new ballet for them — Thursday’s program featured his charming, upbeat “Nyman String Quartet No. 2,” which braids social dance with classical ballet. Nyman’s music nonetheless drones on, however since 2019, when the ballet premiered, the dancers have discovered larger ease and stamina as they weave via in its jaunty mixtures of dance kinds. And it made an added impression sharing this system with “Pas de Dix” (1955), Balanchine’s homage to Marius Petipa and his three-act “Raymonda” (1898).
An organization premiere, “Pas de Dix,” set to Alexander Glazunov’s full of life rating, was staged by the previous New York Metropolis Ballet principal Kyra Nichols. Watching the dancers, a lead couple and an ensemble of eight, carry out “Pas de Dix” was, in its finest moments, like seeing glimpses of Nichols gliding via area: technical and free with in-the-moment musicality. With such a tinny recording (not one of the night’s music was performed dwell), this was a feat.
