TV Reviews : ‘Fall River Legend’ by Harlem Dance Theatre

When the Dance Theatre of Harlem production of “Fall River Legend” first appeared on home video two years ago, it was arguably the finest anywhere, capped by the extraordinarily sympathetic performance of Virginia Johnson in the Lizzie Borden role.

That staging of Agnes de Mille’s 1948 dance drama arrives on Bravo cable at 7:30 tonight--minus the three other works originally part of the package but bearing an introduction by artistic director Arthur Mitchell that provides a capsule history of his company.

Other DTH ballets celebrate the black cultural heritage or emphasize what has been called black style. But blackness is not an issue in “Fall River Legend,” a tale of murder in a close-knit New England community almost a century ago. What counts is the ability to master De Mille’s intense fusion of complex movement influences--a skill gloriously present here but absent until very recently at American Ballet Theatre, where “Fall River Legend” originated.

Johnson’s vulnerability, her hope for a miraculous escape from her stifling family, makes her the ballet’s innocent victim, an interpretation reinforced in the oppressive portrayal of her uncomprehending father by Hughes Magen and of the hateful Stepmother by Stephanie Dabney. As the Pastor, Lowell Smith manages to display physical strength without covering up the essential weakness of the character. Lorraine Graves’ performance of the mother looks overwrought, but she’s particularly ill served by the claustrophobic TV direction of Thomas Grimm.

Played by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Markus Lethinen, the celebrated Morton Gould score sounds fresh and forceful.