Dance Theatre of Harlem: Dance in the mix

Tonight, the Dance Theatre of Harlem makes its first UK appearance in 14 years. John Percival previews its programmes and talks to its founder

Nelson Mandela was partly responsible for the creation 10 years ago of one of the ballets that Dance Theatre of Harlem are now bringing to Britain. South African Suite was inspired by a tour the company made to South Africa in 1992. Its founder and director Arthur Mitchell had resisted an invitation for the DTH to go there while apartheid existed and was persuaded only by a telephone call from Mandela saying how much good they, and they alone, could do by their example of how his people could better themselves. Even then Mitchell laid down conditions: that they would not play to segregated audiences and must perform for children as well as adults.

So they went, and stayed six weeks, playing to sold-out houses in several townships, and (like everywhere else they go) giving workshops, master-classes and a full outreach programme. Lately, other companies have such programmes as a condition of funding, but Mitchell's belief is that "many do it because they have to; we do it because we want to". In fact, Dance Theatre's very existence derives from a school Mitchell set up in Harlem.

Mitchell was born in the New York suburb 68 years ago into a poor family and would never have dreamed of a dance career but for a school guidance counsellor who saw him jitterbugging and talked him into auditioning for the High School of Performing Arts. Scholarships there, at Katherine Dunham's School of Dance where the curriculum exposed him also to philosophy, sociology and anthropology, and then at the School of American Ballet, brought him into New York City Ballet as the first African-American man in any major US ballet.

City Ballet's director Lincoln Kirstein told Mitchell he would have to be twice as good as a white dancer to succeed. Just how good he was is shown by the speed with which he became New York City Ballet's principal dancer, and the fact that roles created for him included the celebrated duet in Agon and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, both choreographed by George Balanchine. Others began to see in him the ability for more than dancing; he was asked to organise the first American Negro Dance Company, which represented the USA at a 1967 world festival in Senegal, and was then sent by the US International Association in 1968 to found a national ballet in Brazil.

While he wasdoing this in Rio de Janeiro, Martin Luther King was murdered, and the shock made Mitchell think, "here I am running around the world doing all these things, why not do them at home"? By happy chance, the soprano Dorothy Maynor invited him to introduce dance into her Harlem School of the Arts, but within six months his pupils increased to the point where he had to strike out on his own.

His first idea, he says, was simply "to get the kids off the streets". He offered them all kinds of dance because that was what he knew. But he soon realised that a company was needed so that those with real talent could use it. Initially Mitchell had to overcome the wide belief that black bodies were unsuited to ballet: "You're an exception," someone told him, and he replied: "No, I had the opportunity." But Mitchell says: "I'm not a black man; I'm a man who happens to have a black skin." And he decided that what he wanted in the school and the company was "what I see when I look out of the window" of his Harlem office – not only black faces but Hispanics, Chinese, whites... whatever.

Everyone is welcome at the school, which now takes about 1,100 pupils a year from kindergarten to degree level (in association with Columbia University). Besides performers, it enriches dance with photographers, designers, administrators. Mitchell is accustomed to seeing some of his dancers become directors of regional ballet companies, but what really tickles him is that one former soloist, Susan Lavelle, after a post-retirement course, has just graduated as a surgeon. He has found that dancers applying for other jobs get interviewed because it is assumed that if you are a dancer, you are motivated and disciplined.

A great believer that people given responsibility will grow with it, Mitchell tells of moving to new premises and finding that a gang controlled the surrounding area. He went to their leader and said: "I'm putting you in charge to look after this place." The result? No damage, no graffiti.

For the company itself, Mitchell defines two aims: excellence and diversity. In the early days the mixture of ballet, modern and ethnic dance made people suggest "that Mitchell doesn't know what he wants", but he argues "it's our strength, not weakness". The formula certainly worked, taking them to national and international success. The Dance Theatre of Harlem made pioneer visits to Russia and China, and South Africa; in Europe it was so popular that it returned again and again, giving London seasons at Sadler's Wells, the Coliseum and Covent Garden, until the increased costs of touring and reduced availability of theatres kept the company from Britain for 14 years.

Remarkably, two of the ballets coming to the UK this time were among those with which Harlem made its name in Britain three decades ago. Balanchine's classicism always suited the dancers, so they are bringing one of his early masterworks, The Four Temperaments. That is on the first London programme with two works created recently following the policy of developing new choreographers. Robert Garland, formerly a dancer with the company, created New Bach last year to three movements of the composer's A minor violin concerto; although the dance style is basically neo-classic, it incorporates jazzy disco touches, too. Similarly Mitchell explains that the other work on that bill, Dwight Rhoden's Twist, pays homage to what the DTH has done to reinvigorate classic style but "puts a new twist on it".

Programme two was first devised when the company was asked to play at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and proved so popular that they just can't drop it. The show's theme represents the diaspora of African culture. It is here that we shall see South African Suite. Mitchell and two of his South Africa-born ballet masters, Augustus Van Heerden (a one-time partner of Margot Fonteyn) and Lavern Naidu, shared the choreographic duties, incorporating different styles of movement they found on their tour. The starting point was a haunting lullaby by the Soweto Quartet – a notable ensemble formed when a mother could only raise the money to send just one of her sons to England to study violin, but he taught his brothers when he returned. Their music puts folk tunes into a classical framework, and the dances use African elements ranging from a lioness to warriors.

The journey from Africa to America is indicated in Dougla, which some will remember as a popular item from the DTH's earlier visits. With music, dances and design all by Geoffrey Holder, who comes from Trinidad, it celebrates the union of different African cultures in a West Indian style. That makes the link to contemporary Manhattan in Return, created by Robert Garland, to songs featuring Aretha Franklin and James Brown. One of the solo dancers is Donald Williams, Harlem's senior member (he has also been a guest of the Royal Ballet and appeared as a dancer in The Cotton Club). He summed up the DTH's purpose earlier this year for an American interviewer, saying: "Our style is really about having something there for everyone. You don't come here for a singular lesson in classical ballet. You'll also see something wild and different. We're not just about ballet; we're also about entertainment."

Dance Theatre of Harlem, Sadler's Wells, London EC1 (020-7863 8000), 4-9 Nov; Lyric Theatre at The Lowry, Salford (0161-876 2000), 12 & 13 Nov