Proof that Black joy is alive and well is coming to New York City when the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s (DTH) Spring Season sweeps into City Center Theatre, April 10-13. The company’s spirit of uplift is all over Instagram as DTH’s energetic young dancers zip across our feeds performing exciting leaps, dizzying pirouettes and all manner of impressive steps in captivating snippets of the excitement that’s in store this season.
DTH dancer Kouadio Davis announces in a voiceover on one of the Instagram video clips, “This 2025 season, I’m looking forward to bigger risks, bigger rewards, more love and more fun onstage. …I can’t wait. It’s going to be fantastic.” In a recent interview with The Amsterdam News, DTH Artistic Director Robert Garland says the season “kicks off with the very, very exciting company premiere of William Forsythe’s ‘The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude.’” Set to the final movement of Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, this electrifying work pays homage to ballet choreographic geniuses Marius Petipa and George Balanchine with its dazzling partnering and lightning-fast allegro. Yet, it’s unmistakably modern, a bold celebration of the DTH dancers’ ability to transform technical challenges into exhilarating feats of physical mastery. Setting the work on the company is dancer/choreographer Jodie Gates, of whom Garland said. ‘She is the Forsythe-whisperer. She’s set this work several times for other companies, including the San Francisco Ballet, Northwest and the Paris Opera. She did a great job coaching the DTH dancers in the Forsythe style so, in her we have a trusted person who lives inside the Forsythe world.” During a recent rehearsal the choreographer Forsythe told the dancers, “This work is designed for dancers to enjoy dancing so you can make it something that gives you joy.” Jodie Gates also has a world premiere work of her own on the DTH program titled “Passage of Being.”
DTH Company Artist Ingrid Silva in “Return.” (Dinah Rogers photo) 
DTH Company Artists Alexandra Hutchinson and Kouadio Davis. (Nir Arieli photo) 
DTH Company Artists in “Return.” (Jeff Cravotta photo) 
The DTH Company. (Jeff Cravotta photo) 
DTH’s Carly Greene in “Donizetti Variations.” (Rachel Papo photo)
The Company also adds George Balanchine’s “Donizetti Variations” to its repertoire for the first time. While the tone is bright and cheery, the technical demands on the dancers are anything but, showcasing two bravura performers in a masterclass of elegance and endurance. Garland calls Mr. Balanchine his “choreographic hero,” praising the late founder of New York City Ballet who, along with impresario and NYCB co-founder Lincoln Kirstein, played a pivotal role in both Arthur Mitchell’s career as a principal with NYCB and his founding of DTH with the late master teacher and co-founder Karel Shook. Garland says, “DTH would not exist if Mr. Balanchine had not chosen Mr. Mitchell in 1955 to dance with NYCB where he became an international star.” Garland is delighted that George Balanchine’s “Donizetti Variations” has been added to DTH’s repertoire for the first time. It’s a work of complete genius,” he says of the ballet, which is a lively, effervescent series of pieces set to Donizetti’s Don Sebastian opera. “I know Mr. Mitchell wanted it for a very long time but never got around to doing it. The ballet was a favorite dance for NYCB ballerina Violette Verdi whom Mr. Mitchell revered, and it was choreographed on NYCB’s Melissa Hayden so it’s just been wonderful having the work on DTH and it’s such a joy to see the dancers move through the ballet,” Garland says.
Garland waxes poetic when talking about DTH’s current 19-member multiethnic company which includes a wonderful mix of familiar faces, like Lindsay Donnell, Ingrid Silva, and Stephanie Williams as well as dynamic new faces who Garland says are at different levels of newness but are really wonderful and talented. “I have an intimate group of really motivated and joined-at-the-hip dancers who just blow my mind. I know that we are going to get larger so I’m savoring this moment of having this intimate group that I work with every single day.”
For his second New York City season as DTH’s Artistic Director Garland has managed to do the amazingly demanding job of juggling both the formidable creative and administrative demands of the job of company head thanks, he says, to the indispensable DTH Executive Director Anna Glass. This season he also delivers two works that showcase his own unique choreographic style. Headlining the season is the ever-popular “Return,” a soulful, high-octane celebration to the timeless sounds of James Brown and Aretha Franklin. But that’s just the beginning—this season also marks the New York premiere of Garland’s “The Cookout,” a tribute to joy, drawing inspiration from DTH’s Arthur Mitchell and his reflections on our shared struggles and triumphs and the dignity and passion of Harlem’s legacy. In fact, Garland says, “Joy is what this DTH season is all about.” Not only is that evidenced by the four captivating performances with a dazzling display of artistry that promises to captivate and delight, but on Thursday, April 10, there is also a pre-show and post-show DJ and dancing in the Grand Tier Lobby of City Center Theatre. On Friday, April 11, Dance Theatre of Harlem holds a Vision Gala with Ava DuVernay, Gala Chair and Ben Vereen, Honorary Gala Chair With D-Nice and Kenny Burns. The Gala program consists of “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” (Company Premiere)—William Forsythe, Excerpts from “Donizetti Variations” (Company Premiere)—George Balanchine, “We Are All Brown” (Excerpt) – Robert Garland Commemorating Brown v. Board of Education With Oration from Janai Nelson, President of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF). Black joy will be on full display and, as Garland says, “We can all use a lot of Joy.” So, this DTH season audiences can expect nothing less than a dazzling display of artistry that promises to captivate and delight. It is a must-see celebration of dance at its most exhilarating.