Review: Dance Theatre of Harlem dazzles with great promise

The Sarasota Ballet presented the Dance Theatre of Harlem at its recent performance at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded by the first African-American ballet dancer, Arthur Mitchell, celebrates its 45th year and is in its third year of re-launch under the direction of former DTH ballerina, Virginia Johnson.

Although the new company shows signs of lack of experience, the building blocks of strong technique and stage presence showcase a budding company ready to take back its historic stature.

DTH started off the program with a piece of its history, “New Bach,” which was created in 1999 by resident choreography Robert Garland, set to music by J.S. Bach. The piece is a neoclassical, Balanchine-inspired, three-act ballet led by a principal couple and flanked by four women and four men. Interspersed between the criss-crossed- and on-and-off-balanced choreography were more current dance movements like snapping and clapping, Latin dance moves and sassy rolling of the hips.

Lead couple Lindsey Croop and Fredrick Davis demonstrated strong technique during the piece that included petite allegro work, pirouettes and jumps. Croop was elegant as she glided across the floor in hip-swaying drags en pointe and stunned in a penché promenade. Davis was cheeky in his expressions and almost taunted the audience.

Chrystyn Fentroy and Jorge Andrés Villarini performed the always-vibrant “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux” by George Balanchine. Fentroy danced with strength and grace in the pas de deux that requires a multitude of fouetté pirouette sequences, lifts and jumps. She followed up that strength in her fast-paced solo that included a difficult pique-turn, double pique-turn en dedans diagonal sequence. The couple completed the pas de deux with stunning fish-dive jump-lifts.

“Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven: Odes to Love and Loss” by Ulysses Dove was a contemporary piece set to music by Arvo Pärt. The dancers wore sleek white unitards, and the set was stark. The undertone of a clock was interspersed between the scenes. The dancers started out in a circle in a clock-ticking rhythm, emulating the gears of a clock.

Samuel Wilson and Dylan Santos were absolutely stunning in a pas de deux that demonstrated the sheer power of male strength. Wilson, with gymnastic strength and flexibility, would jump over Santos and then pose in second position grand plié rolled over on his toes as if en pointe. Then Wilson partnered Santos as he was mid-straddle, demonstrating inner thighs of steel. The three women in this piece — Jenelle Figgins, Ashley Murphy and Ingrid Silva — were all strong and lyrical.

The final piece of the evening, “Vessels,” choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie and set to music by Ezio Bosso, was another contemporary piece that seemed to build in four movements: Light, Belief, Love and Abundance. It closed the evening with a delightful mix of styles and pieces, which thrust this up-and-coming troupe of dancers back into the spotlight.