DAY IN THE LIFE OF DANCE: Works & Process Presents Dance Theatre of Harlem & American Ballet Theatre

On Monday, September 22, Robert Garland, artistic director of DTH welcomed the audience to the first of these Works & Process evenings with a video showcasing the company’s legendary founder Arthur Mitchell, and providing a short history of how the company came to be.  Mitchell, hearing about Martin Luther King’s assassination while at Idyllwild (now JFK) airport on his way to assist in founding a national ballet troupe in Brazil, decided to turn around and instead established a ballet company for people of color in the city of New York. 

Carly Greene and Micah Bullard of Dance Theatre of Harlem in New Bach by Robert Garland. Photo: Works & Process/Elyse Mertz

Having been the first black principal dancer at New York City Ballet, Mitchell built the company on the foundation of choreographer George Balanchine's repertoire. Garland continues the tradition of looking back at Balanchine’s work and helping the dancers to develop by learning and performing Mr. B’s oeuvre. 

Staged by Kyra Nichols, the pas de deux from Donizetti Variations, sparkled with good-natured sweetness. Kamala Saara and Kouadio Davis might have played it a bit safe. They focused on being correct under the watchful eye of current New York City Ballet director, Jonathan Stafford, who, in a brief coaching session, encouraged the pair to be more playful and take risks. The ensuing off-center partnering proved indeed far more exciting. 

Carly Greene and Micah Bullard of Dance Theatre of Harlem in the finale from Higher Ground by Robert Garland. Photo: Works & Process Elyse Mertz 

Garland’s own work, a pas de deux excerpted from his engaging New Bach and the closing number from his Stevie Wonder ballet, Higher Ground, supplemented the program. While Carly Greene and Micah Bullard infused their physical exploration with gusto, the ensemble in the finale looked so very timid and worried about making a mistake, that I wondered if etiquette expert Emily Post might have been responsible for the staging.

The highlight of the evening proved to be one of DTH’s signature works, John Taras's Firebird. Dancers Alexandra Hutchinson and Derek Brockington delivered the steps, and then original cast member Donald Williams joined them on the small Guggenheim stage to share his thoughts. Williams, one of the biggest stars in the company’s illustrious history, knows how to inspire. His vivid imagination sparked Hutchinson to peck at her own eggshell. Under Williams’s guidance she is sure to hatch and grow expansive wings. Williams recalled the sensory awareness and kinetic audacity of his late partner, the fabulous Stephanie Dabney, as he demonstrated a series of bourrées that stabbed the floor. The delight in exerting such force reflected in a thirsty flutter of his fingertips. Williams, for a moment, became the Firebird, and the dancers as well as the audience were spellbound by his unapologetic, larger-than-life presence. Williams’s master class makes me excited to see the company’s 2026 season, when the dancers will don Geoffrey Holder's fantastic costumes and bring this 1982 work back to life. 
 

Derek Brockington and Alexandra Hutchins in the pas de deux from Firebird by John Taras. Photo: Works & Process / Elyse Mertz 

A dance party in the museum’s rotunda concluded this inspired evening so affably hosted by Garland.

The following Monday, ABT’s artistic director, Susan Jaffe, greeted the crowd. The program opened with works by three choreographers who were instrumental in the company’s early years. 

Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides, premiered by the Ballets Russes in 1909, opened Ballet Theatre’s very first performance in 1940. Principal dancers Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III allowed a glimpse into the work’s poetic beauty. Pianist Evangelos Spanos played Chopin’s music with an emphatic eye on the dancers. 
 

Calvin Royal III and Christine Shevchenko of American Ballet Theatre in the pas de deux from Les Sylphides by Michel Fokine. Photo: Works & Process/Elyse Mertz

While originally choreographed in 1942 for the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo, Agnes de Mille's Rodeo has long been a staple in ABT’s repertoire. Presented in short excerpts performed by the work’s three protagonists, Cowgirl, Champion Roper, and Head Wrangler, the ballet transports one back in time and far away from New York. The upcoming season will show if Breanne Granlund has the chops to make one care, or maybe even root for the Cowgirl, a tomboy looking to be accepted by the dudes, here danced by Carlos Gonzalez and Patrick Frenette.

When Erica Cornejo took over the role twenty years ago, she triumphed and managed to infuse the ballet with a comical physicality that rose from failure and won the hearts of everyone on stage and in the audience. The intimacy of the Guggenheim stage and the brevity of the excerpts simply didn’t allow for a large-scale interpretation, which might soon blossom on stage at Lincoln Center during the company’s fall season.
 

Patrick Frenette, Breanne Granlund and Carlos Gonzalez of American Ballet Theatre in an excerpt from Rodeo by Agnes DeMille. Photo: Works & Process/Elyse Mertz

Antony Tudor's funny Gala Performance still works in its astute reading of differing ballerina characters. Hailing from Russia, Italy, and France, these distinguished “guest artists,” danced by Skylar Brandt, Chloe Misseldine, and Léa Fleytoux, prepare for their performances and interact with ballet masters, stagehands, and with one another in their particular ways. The way each ballerina walks defines her. Lovingly staged by Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner, who both disappear into the orchestra pit to throw flowers during the prolonged curtain call, the piece is an engaging study in underhanded one-upmanship. Tudor certainly knows how to steal the limelight. Jaffe reminisced with McKerrow and Gardner about working with the demanding choreographer.
 

Skylar Brandt, Chloe Misseldine and Léa Fleytoux of American Ballet Theatre in an excerpt from Gala Performance by Antony Tudor. Photo: Works & Process/Elyse Mertz

Tudor understood how to set a mood or an atmosphere by spraying perfume on stage before the curtain went up, or by whispering a secret into a performer’s ear just before she went on stage. While DeMille was very vocal and guided the dancer in the rehearsal process, Tudor pushed a dancer’s emotional and physical boundaries through a process of self-discovery having the dancer repeat movement many times. Yet, for both choreographers, physicality was the key to representing human beings and their individual yet universal emotions. Created for the London Ballet in 1938, Gala Performance entered Ballet Theatre’s repertoire in 1941, and is certain to be a hit with today’s ballet audience.

Going even further back in time, the Bluebird pas de deux adage from The Sleeping Beauty shows off the truly classical dance abilities of Fleytoux and Gonzalez. Jaffe has staged the work after choreography by Marius Petipa, and I look forward to the high-flying Bluebird solo on the big stage at Lincoln Center.

Carlos Gonzalez and Léa Fleytoux of American Ballet Theatre in the adage from Bluebird pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty (Act III) with choreography after Marius Pepita, staged by Susan Jaffe

Excerpts from Have We Met?! brought the program to a memorable conclusion. Spitfire Catherine Hurlin, expertly partnered by Daniel Camargo and lovely Fangqi Li, danced up a storm under the passionate guidance of choreographer Juliano Nunes, whose work will premier on Wednesday, October 29th 2025.

While the idea of souls meeting during different lifetimes couldn’t be communicated by the short excerpt, what I did take away was fabulous movement invention and dancers relishing in their physicality. What a way to whet one’s appetite for ABT’s two-week season which commenced on  October 15th and runs through November 1st. For American Ballet Theatre's programming and tickets, click here.