Dance theatre of Harlem

Fall River legend
The dancers wear long dresses and skirts, male dancers are in suits. Most of them are black. It’s more modern dance then just pure ballet. The performers don’t do tricks and the whole “legend” is very slow, reminds a silent movie. The emotions are shown through the moves so the audience knows what happens on the stage. There were few arabesques, sautés, petit jetes. The dance was performed in adagio. I saw head movements all the time. They proved that black people can do ballet. Few dance moves reminded me of worshipping gods. They did worship God by walking, and jumping, forming a circle. They raised their hands high to the ceiling while standing on their knees.
All the dancers, especially backstage had their arms in third position most of the time.
The whole dance routine wasn’t very complicated and difficult.

Troy game

Very athletic, masculine dancers were performing an incredible dance. It was a mixture of African dance and ballet. The complexity of moves was pretty high. They did wheels, they used moves from martial arts, the jumps were high also. It seemed like the dancers could stay up in the air few seconds more than usual people. The temp was not too fast but very dynamic, at the same time it was sustainable. I noticed dancers doing forth arabesque, a lot of flipping.
The dance was full of contrasts, the lines of dancers rushed forward in energetic, repetitive movements like waves washing up onto a shore. It’s there in the recurring line of men who goose-step in a hard, straight march across the stage.
The dancers would scream something during the show. There was no music in the beginning, only their own rhythm. The Troyon worriers’ exercises reminded me a fitness class. I saw splits, pour de bra, marching. The dancers often stretched their arms making a straight line. They showed hunting and battles.

The beloved
Two performers on the stage. Beautiful dance. Two chairs and a table, two dancers. A voice on the bacjground and piano music. The dancers are covered with clothes. The rhythm changes every other minute. He raises her up to the sky, puts her back on the ground. A lot of sliding on the floor. She skips and leaps in graceful simplicity.

John Henry

A railroad on the stage. Hard working guys keep raising their equipment very high and biting the railroad. It’s a working class listening to the story of John Henry. In their leisure time they also dance. The main dancer is very artistic. He does splits, flips in the air, passé.
They dance ballet to the country song, clap, use tapping, ballroom dancing. He raises her in the air and she does splits, throws legs up. She does “the bridge”, throwing her torso back with arms. The steps remind me of tango. Girls do foutte, change form efface derriere to epaule derriere.