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Reviews
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Dance Theatre of Harlem2004 UK Tour Journalists are notoriously cynical, and reviewers can be the most cynical of the lot (except perhaps political journalists - but that's another story), so when you hear words like "phenomenal" being bandied around in the Theatre Royal's Monnet Room (where the management feed us interval drinks to keep us sweet!), you know that something special is happening. That something special is the Dance Theatre of Harlem's 2004 UK tour. The DTH style is unique, classical ballet à la Balanchine with a very American feel: modern, exciting and a world away from the "pretty pretty" popular image of Swan Lake and Giselle. The programme they are presenting at the Theatre Royal (for two nights and one matinee only) shows off their versatility brilliantly. They opened with Dougla, an incredible fusion of ballet, African and Indian dance. Portraying a Dougla wedding (the Dougla people are of Trinidadian mixed African and Indian race), the dancers, in spectacular, albeit simple, costumes, accompanied by a driving drum beat, mix point work and a range of classical ballet moves with African body movements and Indian hand and head gestures to tremendous effect and left the audience cheering after twenty minutes which passed in a flash. Choreography, music and costumes were all by Geoffrey Holder.
The second piece could not be more of a contrast. Return has no story, no "meaning": it is simply a mixture of ballet and jazz dance set to songs by Aretha Franklin and James Brown and choreographed by Robert Garland. Using various combinations of dancers from soloists to large groups, Garland has created both simple and intricate pieces which show the skills of the company whilst reflecting the music.
The final piece of the evening is Firebird, choreographed by John Taras to Stravinsky's 1948 version of his Firebird Suite. This is pure classical ballet (if the DTH kind) for the most part, but it changes with the arrival of the Prince of Evil and his Creatures of Evil, when the African in African-American influence shows itself clearly. Dougla had the audience delighted; Return provided great entertainment; but Firebird brought the house down. As with the other two pieces in the programme, the setting for Firebird is very simple, with nothing in the way of scenery, simply projection on the cyclorama, some hanging "tendrils" and the occasional use of a front gauze. The costumes, which were designed by Geoffrey Holder who was responsible for Dougla, were, to begin with, all one would expect of a modern ballet piece but changed with the arrival of the Creatures of Evil, who looked like particularly horrible garden gnomes, and the Prince of Evil, which showed very storng African influence. Firebird ended with a surprise - a pantomime walk-down, no less - although without the staircase. And it worked! The perfect antidote to a very wet Newcastle evening! The touring programme has a repertoire of nine pieces, of which only three are performed at each venue. There are two more stops left on the tour - King's, Glasgow (11th May) and Birmingham Hippodrome (14th May) - where the company will present the same programme. The full repertoire was only presented at Sadler's Wells.
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