Choreographing in Future Tense

On Sept. 25, 2001, Dance Theatre of Harlem opened its season in New York City with four premieres by choreographers long associated with the company--by any standard, a lot of new work for a dance program. Three of those new dances--Laveen Naidu’s “Virra,” Robert Garland’s “New Bach” and Lowell Smith’s “Pas de Deux for Phygia and Spartacus”--will be performed during the company’s engagement Friday through next Sunday at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

The opening-night performance in New York marked another first for the company: Onstage at City Center, it was announced that Dance Theatre of Harlem would get a new name, Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem.

And no one was more surprised by the announcement than Mitchell, artistic director and founder of the company. “Oh, yeah, I didn’t know anything about it,” he said with a laugh during a recent conversation with The Times. “Many people said, ‘We’ve very rarely seen you at a loss for words,’ but I was just bowled over.”

In 1955, Mitchell became the first African American male dancer in a major classical ballet company when he joined New York City Ballet, where he would perform lead roles for 15 years, including several created for him by company artistic director George Balanchine. Upon learning of the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Mitchell was moved to jettison his successful performing career to found Dance Theatre of Harlem, a haven for African American ballet dancers that has, during the past 15 years, redefined itself as a multicultural company.

After more than 30 years at the helm, Mitchell, 67, reflected on how the dance world has changed, how Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem has changed, and how the company plans to face a future rendered uncertain by the events of Sept. 11.

Question: You were busy working on a film project this week. What was that?

Answer: The Balanchine Foundation was filming, or maybe I should say recording, as many people as they could [talking about] ballets that were created or choreographed for them. So they asked me about the “Agon” pas de deux, which was created for me by Mr. Balanchine and Mr. Stravinsky. Things change over a period of time, and they are trying to preserve as much of the original choreography as they can.

Q: This year, looking back at your career seems to have become a theme of sorts.

A: [Laughing] Well, it may be to everyone else, but I am looking forward to what I am going to be doing! But yes, we have titled our season “Living the Legacy,” exploring how I am passing on the legacy of dance to the young people here; that was the theme of our season at City Center.

Q: Your legacy will be more apparent now, with the renaming of the company.

A: Although people have started saying “Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem,” the actual change of the name has not happened, because we just have not had the chance to deal with all the changing of the notes and the bylaws, amendments and resolutions. But it was a great honor, actually.

Q: The new name raises the question: Can the company live on beyond you?

A: Well, I always planned for Dance Theatre of Harlem to go on beyond me. Most companies exist primarily to do the choreography of [the namesake] choreographer. That’s never really been my goal. We have a wide, varied repertoire that needs to be danced; it wasn’t just a haven for me to choreograph my work.

We have the infrastructure [so] that the organization can go on. We’ve brought in a CEO, we’ve got a director of development, a director of administration and human resources, marketing director, special events person. Artistically, the company has always been very well known and very well accepted, but there is a point where I was doing everything, and they said, “No matter how wonderful you are, you’ve got to start putting things in place, because you are 67 years old.” Many people felt that there was too much power in the hands of one person, and if I got hit by a car, the organization would go under.

Q: Are you thinking about retiring?

A: No. It’s not even a question.

Q: I read somewhere that you first appeared on stage 50 years ago.

A: [Laughs] 52.

Q: How has the world of classical ballet changed?

A: The whole world, the whole field has changed. The thing is, when I started Dance Theatre of Harlem, I was the only African American male dancer in a major ballet company, that’s No. 1. Now, I do see all of the companies have integrated, whether they’ve got Hispanic or Asian or African American dancers in their companies, and that is a major, major, major step. Then the theory that blacks couldn’t do classical ballet, I think that’s been disproven.

About 12, 14 years after I established the company, I realized again that I was setting up a barrier; I felt that our company should reflect the society that we live in, so we integrated. The company is mostly African American, but you will see Caucasian people in the company, Asian people in the company.

Q: It still doesn’t seem like there are very many minority dancers in classical ballet companies.

A: No. But you see, the thing is, if you have 100 Caucasians studying dance, 10 will make it. If you only have 10 minority students studying dance, one is going to make it. That’s the natural ratio of the fallout. I don’t think any choreographer, if he sees a phenomenal dancer, is going to turn him or her down because of color.

Q: We’re used to seeing Dance Theatre of Harlem in Los Angeles every year or so, but it’s certainly unusual to see so much new work.

A: We took four choreographers out of the company and they choreographed the world premieres, and they were presented together on the opening night in New York. It was a very daring thing to do, because for some it was their first major, large work, even though they had choreographed before. But I wanted to show that, aside from turning out dancers, we also are turning out choreographers, because there is such a great need for choreographers that are working in the classical vocabulary.

They all have their own look. “Virra,” pronounced “Vee-RAH,” is the Sanskrit word for brave. Mr. Naidu did that--that’s built on speed, the use of classical technique and speed. Robert Garland worked with Bach, but he called it “New Bach,” because Bach is one of the forefathers of jazz and syncopation, and he took some of the urban street dances that the kids are doing now and coupled that with classical dancing. So it’s a new interpretation.

Q: Do you hope that some of your dancers will become the main choreographers for the company?

A: Oh yes, that’s why we’re developing them. They know the dancers, they know each other, they know the working habits of the organization. Even though we give some young choreographers from outside a chance, it’s wonderful to have some that are inside the company.

Q: For the opening night in New York, the tension must have been high, so soon after Sept. 11.

A: Yes--because first of all, starting on the 14th of September, we were to have performed at the World Trade Center. And then two weeks after the attacks, we were to open our New York City season. We decided to go ahead with the season, knowing full well that we would lose an awful of lot of money--but that we felt that was our mission and mandate, and we must do it. I think seven Broadway shows closed that weekend.

Funds have been pouring into the Sept. 11 Fund, and it’s been a tremendous hardship on the arts organizations. The tourists that weren’t coming, and grants that were to be looked at in September, October, November, were being pushed off into May, June and July. Very few companies have that kind of cash flow to exist. We go from hand to mouth all the time, so there was a tremendous effect on all of us, and many of the smallest organizations will just go under. I know we’ve lost a lot of money, in ticket sales and sponsorships, but we’re hoping to recoup all that by the end of this fiscal year.

Q: With all these premieres, it must have been a particularly expensive period too.

A: Right. Going into it, we were depending on sponsorship and grants and things like that, and they all got changed--I wouldn’t say canceled, but they all got changed at that moment, and so that just added to the financial crisis.

You just have to quadruple your fund-raising efforts. Because tourism is such a major part of this city, a lot of foundations are now coming forward and giving money for dance companies to help support them through these times, so that there will be something for tourists to see other than ground zero, when they get here.

Q: You don’t perform onstage anymore, but do you dance at all?

A: No, I had both of my hips replaced a year and a half ago. But I still move--this morning I was up teaching and moving around, and everyone says, “My God, you look fantastic!”

And I was very fortunate, in the Olympic torch relay, carrying the flame from Greece to Salt Lake City, they asked me to carry the flame--Dick Parsons [Richard D. Parsons, newly named chief executive of AOL Time Warner] and myself carried it through Harlem, on Dec. 26. I got caught up in the throes of it, and I was running down the street, and then in the middle of it, I said to myself: “Wait a minute, Mitchell, are you crazy?” But that was very exciting. It’s the link with history, with what it represents, and you just forget about yourself and you start going.”

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Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. $35-$50. (562) 916-8500 or (800) 300-4345. www.cerritoscenter.com.

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Diane Haithman is a Times staff writer.