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Alexandra Tomalonis
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Dance Theatre of Harlem

By Alexandra Tomalonis
Special To The Washington Post
May 25, 2003

The dancers of Dance Theatre of Harlem were at their most engaging Friday night, when the company presented a program of mostly home-grown choreography. Three of the ballets were choreographed within the past four years, and two were new to Washington.

“Passion in the Blood,” based on Federico Garcia Lorca’s play, “Blood Wedding,” by Augustus van Heerden was the most ambitious and most problematic, despite an ingenious set by Maxine Willi Klein -- white stucco panels that serve as the walls of three different houses as well as a village square -- and committed performances by everyone.

Van Heerden clearly tells the story of a bride who runs off with her lover on her wedding day and the resulting tragic consequences, and does well at building characters through dance: Leonardo, the lover (Ramon Thielen) moves like a panther, powerful and deadly. He’ll lunge for the Bride to be, then twist his body away from her, away from temptation, both moves equally fierce and equally impetuous.

But perhaps because van Heerden used three separate pieces by different composers rather than a cohesive score, the pacing is off. The build up to the final duel is leisurely, with small dramatic details -- the Groom’s mother checking out her prospective daughter-in-law’s linens and lace, for example -- that would enrich a full-evening ballet, but slow down a short one. The wedding guests dance a generic Spanish-flavored ballet that is little more than genial filler and stops the action cold. And while the final duel to the death between the jilted Groom and Leonardo is strongly choreographed at first -- each knife thrust and resulting recoil turned into dance -- both men eventually seem to fizzle to death.

The other two new works were pure dance pieces. Laveen Naidu’s “Viraa” is a cheerful, Balanchine-inflected piece to Bloch’s “Concerto Grosso #2” for seven couples, led by Andrea Long and Eric Underwood. Underwood’s strong, centered turns were the dance high point of the evening.

Robert Garland is a former DTH dancer who’s choreographed several works for the company. His “Return,” to James Brown and Aretha Franklin hits, is a romp, the perfect “send ‘em home happy” ballet. It’s flashy, fast and fun, and shows off the personalities of the dancers beautifully. Donald Williams, DTH’s reigning Prince, was a hoot in “Superbad,” bobbing, shimmying, preening like a rooster in a henhouse -- then whipping off a gazillion grand pirouettes without dropping a wink.

All three new ballets were commissioned by the company’s founder-director, Arthur Mitchell, and, while certainly not groundbreaking, all are useful works: they’re well-constructed, they’re entertaining, they come from the company’s traditions, and they show off the dancers well. It’s from this laboratory that the company’s renewal could come. Loyce Houlton’s 1971 duet, “Wingborne,” completed the program.