Diana Adams on Agon: “I don't remember ever sitting around discussing dancing with him. Even with something like Agon, I tried not to analyze, because then I might give too much significance to a gesture, like when I put my hand on Arthur's wrist. I knew it wasn't meant to be a sentimental gesture. It had to do with part of a movement and I would spoil it if I started to think about it. In Agon the movements were so intricate that you really didn't think in terms of whose li

Arthur Mitchell & Diana Adams. Photos by Martha Swope, 1957 Diana Adams remembers that Balanchine wanted to compose the pas de deux before setting any of the other dances; this implied to her that he felt it would give him the key or approach to the rest of the work. Says Mitchell of that famous part, "The pas de deux is like seeing live sculpture. Before your eyes, the dancers move from one fantastic pose to another, but you don't know how they got there. Balanchine said, "T

Photo by Martha Swope, 1958. From Edward Villella's autobiography Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic "One day Balanchine stopped me and matter-of-factly told me that I was going to be the understudy for Todd Bolender in Agon. I thought this was terrible news. Agon was probably the single most complicated work in the history of classical dance up to then. I was still trying to adjust to the sounds of the music. It was the first time I had been ex

[6/7] Last week @dancetheatreofharlem celebrated Founders’ Week, marking the 56th anniversary of the company. Arthur Mitchell: “The...

Dance Theatre of Harlem opens at Apollo Theater. Arthur Mitchell, instructs audience of senior citizens, groups of children and...

Photo by Marbeth, 1969--70 [3/7] This week @dancetheatreofharlem celebrates Founders’ Week, marking the 56th anniversary of the company....

Arthur Mitchell teaching at DTH school 1969-70. Photo by Marbeth. "Despite his own success (indeed, because of it), Mitchell realized the...

Lydia Abarca and Derek Williams perform Balanchine's Agon. Photo by Anthony Crickmay [1/7] This week @dancetheatreofharlem celebrates...

In this episode, Theara discusses her early career in the Dance Theatre of Harlem under Arthur Mitchell and how that experience prepared...

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck is a mischievous fairy who is a servant to Oberon, the fairy king. Originally danced by Arthur...

(20/50) "In 1958, Balanchine removed the grand pas de deux, substituting for it a dance for the Sugar Plum Fairy supported not by a...

(12/50) I love these two photos of Arthur Mitchell dancing Balanchine's 1954 choreography for Arabian/Coffee. He just looks so radiant...

(2/2) Balanchine on his 1968 revival of Slaughter on Tenth Avenue: "It is not really a revival of the old Slaughter, just that we are...

Former Dance Theatre of Harlem Artist, Christopher Charles McDaniel, talks to us about his experiences in the studio as one of Arthur...

In 1962, NYCB went on tour to the Soviet Union. Allegra performed Agon with Arthur Mitchell. She wrote: “I was filling in for Diana Adams...

(12/12) “If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did...

(2/12) Here are additional photos from the original 1962 production. When Balanchine was a child, he was an elf in a production of...

(1/12) Twelve performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins today! These first two posts feature photos from the original production...

“In my opinion it is [Stravinsky’s]—it is our—most perfect work, representing a total collaboration between musician and choreographer.”...

(4/4) Today is for the men of Afternoon of a Faun. Eddie Villella shared in his autobiography: “I learned that I had actually been...