Program 5 – Dance Theatre of Harlem

Continuing a tradition of hosting a major dance company for the Sarasota community to experience, The Sarasota Ballet’s Program 5 features the world-renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem. Called “one of ballet’s most exciting undertakings” by The New York Times, the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company, founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, presents a powerful vision for ballet in the 21st century. The 18-member, the multi-ethnic company performs a forward-thinking repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical works by George Balanchine and Resident Choreographer Robert Garland, as well as innovative contemporary works that use the language of ballet as a celebration of Mitchell’s belief that ballet belongs to everyone.

“From its modest beginnings in the 1960s in a Harlem church basement to its meteoric rise to international fame, the Dance Theatre of Harlem ignited the world with one simple, still-revolutionary statement: All can do ballet.” – Dance Theatre of Harlem: A History, A Movement, A Celebration, by Judy Tyrus and Paul Novosel