DTH Vol. 1 No. 1 - Inception

Lydia Abarca and Derek Williams perform Balanchine's Agon. Photo by Anthony Crickmay

[1/7] This week @dancetheatreofharlem celebrates Founders Week, marking the 56th anniversary of the company. Join me in celebrating by learning more about the company in a series of DTH posts!

Below is an excerpt of a Dance Magazine article published in 1975 when the company was barely 6 years old:

"The romantic story of DTH begins at the point when Mitchell, mourning the murder of the religious an dcivil rights leader Martin Luther Kind Jr., resolves to do something to honor him and to help their people in the United States. His beautiful somber words are worth repeating: 'After Martin Luther King was assassinated, and there were all the eulogies, I asked myself: Arthur Mitchell, what can you do? When you pay homage you do the thing you do best: if you make music, you beat your drum; if you are a signer, you sing your song; if you are a dancer, you dance.'

"Mitchell paid King the ultimate homage: not to dance as Mitchell, but to make other dancers, black like King and black like Mitchell, in the images of the classical ideal. To achieve this, Mitchell had to make a school in which to train black dancers and he had to find theaters in which to present them as processional artists. It is almost incredible that, within five years, Mitchell accomplished these goals, and well-nigh miraculous that the company he brought into being from this school has already won international renown."

Written by Olga Maynard

(left) Virginia Johnson in Agon. Photo by Marbeth

(right) Lydia Abarca and Derek Williams performing Pas de Deux from dance production Agon. Audience includes [L-R]: Arthur Mitchell, Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon, Karel Shook and Roman Brooks