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.
Dance Theater of Harlem
Through Sunday at New York City Center, Manhattan; nycitycenter.org.
Dancing,Dance Theater of Harlem,New York City Center Theater,Garland, Robert,Forsythe, William (1955- ),Balanchine, George,Gates, Jodie
