It’s been a long voyage home for Dance Theatre of Harlem. The trailblazing company Arthur Mitchell founded in 1969 shut down due to lack of funds nine years ago. Opening Wednesday at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, it’s leaner than when it left and needs time to regain its strength.
The evening got off to a shaky start. “Agon” was one of the original troupe’s signature pieces, but this group didn’t click with Balanchine’s cool style, and some of the cast had trouble with technical basics such as turn-out. Canned Stravinsky on a bad sound system didn’t help. There were bright spots, particularly Chyrstyn Fentroy’s lethal elegance as she extended her long, sharp legs or balanced imperturbably leading a trio. Still, there’s work to be done.
It isn’t ballet without “Swan Lake” in there somewhere. The “Black Swan” pas de deux featured Michaela DePrince, an 18-year-old ballerina with a back story — she was orphaned in Sierra Leone during its civil war and adopted by an American family. A strong technician, she pulled a nifty stunt in her final turns by also flapping her arms like a bird. But her placid smile while seducing and destroying her partner failed to evoke the drama behind the dance.
John Alleyne’s “Far But Close” has a cool trick — the women slide on their toes across the stage as if it were ice. The atmosphere is chilly, too, with a dreamy live score played on cello, violin and piano. But the main ingredient is the offstage dialogue, voiced by Daniel Beaty and Nicole Lewis, of a couple’s prickly courtship.
Alleyne doesn’t try to have the dancers act out the narrative; instead he fractures it into two couples dancing tentative duets. The story of the young black woman’s distrust of black men never becomes more than a cliché, but things end optimistically as the couples continue dancing while the curtain slowly descends.
The troupe hit its stride by the closer, “Return,” Robert Garland’s feel-good ballet to music by James Brown and Aretha Franklin. Resident choreographer since 1997, Garland knows these dancers — and it shows.
While leggy, talented Ashley Murphy tied herself into knots in “Far But Close” and still seemed opaque, Garland gives her character in mere moments. In a charming vignette, she dubiously rejects her partner, but then smiles and dances with him anyway. Indeed, while performing Garland’s mix of urban dance and classical ballet, the entire company looked relaxed and happy.
What this troupe needs now are more works where the dancers can toughen up, yet be themselves.