When Dance Theatre of Harlem returns to Detroit this weekend, it won’t feel like a visit. Now in its ninth Detroit residency, the company’s return is a homecoming, especially for Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Executive Director Anna Glass.
“Detroit is home for me,” she says. “And when I have the opportunity to come home, to be in Detroit, it just feels so good.”
With 44 company dancers in tow, Glass marks her Detroit homecoming by reviving Igor Stravinsky’s 1910 ballet Firebird, unseen on the company’s stage for more than 20 years.
Stravinsky’s Firebird is a fantastical Slavic folktale of love and mysticism. Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Firebird, which debuted in 1982, reimagines the Russian classic in a colorful Caribbean milieu, complete with costuming and sets by Geoffrey Holder and choreography by John Taras, who trained under George Balanchine alongside Arthur Mitchell, the company’s founder.
“Geoffrey designed this ballet so that it’s in the Caribbean. It’s vibrant. It is all pageantry. If anyone has seen a West Indian day parade, that is what it feels like. It is magical. It’s mythical. And the ballet hasn’t been seen in over 20 years,” Glass says. “Now is a significant time for this ballet because there are generations of young people who have never seen it before. There are generations of young people who have probably never heard of Geoffrey Holder.”
The Youth Mission of Dance Theatre of Harlem
Reaching young people has been central to Dance Theatre of Harlem’s mission since Mitchell established the company in 1969, a year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—a moment that became a clarion call for Mitchell, who saw ballet as a tool for perseverance and self-esteem.
Mitchell, according to Glass, believed that a ballet education could have a profoundly positive impact on the youth he encountered in Harlem. “And he was right,” says Glass. “He was not out to create an army of ballet dancers; he was out to create an army of citizens. Fast forward to today, Harlem is a very different community.”
Firebird’s story of transformation, resilience, and beauty mirrors the Phoenix-like rise of both Detroit and Harlem, two Renaissance communities shaped by art, reinvention, and the civil rights movement.
“Detroit is a city of innovation and a city of resilience,” she says. “And for those who have followed Dance Theatre of Harlem’s history over the decades would know that is how we see ourselves as well.”
Firebird will have an exclusive engagement at the Detroit Opera on Nov. 15–16 before the company takes the performance to Paris as part of its global tour. Tickets are available at detroitopera.org. $25 City of Detroit Resident Rush Tickets are available at the box office the week of the show. Visit detroitopera.org/discounts for details.
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