Mixing It Up

Dance Theatre of Harlem's Return departs from the typical classical performance.

by ASHLEY FANTZ

Let's suppose, in the farthest stretch of one's imagination, that Anna Pavlova was funky.

Anna Pavlova was so funky that if she desired, her lithe limbs would hustle out of a pink tutu and step into a pair of baggy digs dejour. She would throw her toe shoes to the side for some Mary J. Blige boots and unravel her tight bun to a pony tail spiked with bright orange hair extensions. And because attitude is what ultimately defines a performer, Anna would translate her music into a dance that seamlessly unites the mutt mixture of contemporary soul and neo-classical ballet.

The dance world may laugh at such an idea. But Robert Garland, director and choreographer for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is laughing all the way to the dance hall of fame. Return is Garland's fourth ballet, and it has already caused a sensation on both coasts. Unfairly and constantly compared to Alvin Ailey's style (DTH often get calls asking for Ailey's director Judith Jamison), Garland has finally achieved critical status as a choreographer.

The show that Garland calls "a fusion of urban sensibility and traditional ballet" will open for one performance this Saturday at The Orpheum. All ticket proceeds will benefit Ballet Memphis and LeMoyne-Owen College.

It's been 16 years since the Dance Theatre of Harlem has performed in Memphis. Originally the company was under the tutelage of founder Arthur Mitchell, a man committed to combining ethnic dance idioms with the highest forms of ballet. In 1968, Mitchell had already danced for more than a decade with the New York City Ballet. He was moved by Martin Luther King's assassination and formed the company in 1969 to give children in Harlem opportunities they might otherwise never have.

The company's members have trained with the finest instructors in the world; most have attended Juilliard's School of Music and Dance, including Garland who took over directorial duties from Mitchell in 1998. One of Garland's favorite company members, principal Andrea Long, a petite dancer whose small toe probably has more muscle than most people's biceps, opens Return and is featured in a James Brown number, Mother Popcorn.

"Andrea's background is steeped in neo-classical movement, but she's able to really reach into her culture and draw that out convincingly," says Garland. "When the company performed at the Kennedy Center recently, the audience was just howling. It's just not a sit down and be quiet ballet."

Loosening up wasn't the easiest task for the 30-year-old company. Most of the dancers were so used to rigid technique and had to relearn popular dancing.

"I had to teach them how to bump and do the hustle," Garland says. "We'll have the Soul Train groove with an arabesque in between."

Return is an homage to the era in which the 47-year-old Garland grew up.

"Dancing was a kind of benchmark in getting a date for an evening. A girl was not going to deal with you unless you could dance," Garland says. "I remember doing a few moves in front of my mother when I was young and she would say, 'Oh, that's the black bottom,' which was taught in Harlem in the 20s and 30s."

Although Return is the company's hottest addition, it will also perform signature ballets Manifestations and South African Suite -- the latter staged to the music from the Seweto String Quartet and inspired by the company's trip to South Africa in 1992.

Memphis dancers will have a chance to join the prestigious company. Auditions for the company and its summer program are Friday, March 10th at the Hope and Healing Center (call Kimberly Baker for more information, 259-4673, x1653). Garland says he likes to keep talent fresh.

"This is not a black company," he says. "We have dancers who look like the world -- Chinese, Jewish, Hispanic, white -- we don't go for the cookie-cutter types."

Garland started dancing at 13 years old, a late start by professional standards. His father was an amateur basketball player. His mother played piano, often filling his home with music. At first, his father was against Garland taking ballet lessons. His parents divorced, and his mother promptly answered her child's pleas to dance. He learned quickly and within two years was performing with Philidelphia's premiere company Philadanco.

"When I began to dance, black people were desperate to do things that traditionally they couldn't do like ballet and opera," he says. "There's a part of me who loves it individually and then there's the part who -- like Wynton Marsalis and Ving Rhames who all went to Juilliard at the time I did -- wants to give something to our culture."

But dance's basic intention remains: to save expression from the clutter of insufficent words.

"It's not what we do on stage; it's the energy an audience throws back at you just by the look on their face that's dance," says Garland.

You can e-mail Ashley Fantz at ashley@memphisflyer.com.