Melissa Harris-Perry: In 1969, legendary dancer and choreographer, Arthur Mitchell along with Karel Shook founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Five decades later, the theater continues to provide an environment where Black artists can flourish, but like many of their peers, the Dance Theatre of Harlem had to hit a long pause on live performances during the pandemic. This weekend, the company is returning to the stage.
They'll be performing Passage, a piece first created in 2019 to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in 1619, Virginia. Choreographer Claudia Schreier and composer Jessie Montgomery teamed up to create movement and music embodying the anguish and honoring the ancestry of those early African arrivals. Claudia told me about choreographing a dance that conveys the evil of slavery while celebrating the struggle for freedom.
Claudia Schreier: More than anything else, I would say that the work speaks to a sense of momentum, and the music, in particular, has a cinematic through-line that is based in water. The title of the ballet, Passage speaks directly to the middle passage. The ballet has somewhat of an allegorical bent to it in terms of how we follow our characters from beginning to end. Ultimately, there is no Black or white way to tell this story, to tell our story, to tell any element of our collective throughline.
It is as much about joy and release and freedom as it is about pain and suffering and all of the horrific elements of the past that in some way, unfortunately, define who we are as a people. All of that I believe went into crafting the ballet, crafting the music, and then developing the relationship between the two.
Melissa: Jessie, I think I want to ask you something similar. As you're composing, does it begin for you with a single sound or a single instrument? How do you begin the sonic journey of the middle passage?
Jessie Montgomery: Like Claudia mentioned, I feel like we both started with this image of water even though when we discuss it, it's like-- I can't remember if I came up with the musical Water Sounds first and then Claudia, you then worked off of that or if we both-- It felt very organic in terms of where we were going to start in terms of the water imagery. For me, that water is the story. That was where all of the mystery, all of the struggle, the movement, the unknowing lives in that imagery.
As you hear the music unfold, again, that theme just keeps coming back and coming back. It's the abstracted version of all of those feelings, all of the unknown that is embodied in the representation of water and the Middle Passage. Again, I'm working in music as a medium, in general. It's a really beautiful place to explore those kinds of like, in some cases, more abstract relationships to harder truths. That was really perfect, gave a lot of purpose to the piece, and was a really meaningful thing to explore with Claudia.
Melissa: I'm wondering for both of you what it means to you to have the Dance Theatre of Harlem perform this piece, to perform Passage.
Claudia: It's hard to put into words but it means in a way, this is the only company that could have done this work and it was born out of the history of the company. Truly, we are standing on the shoulders of Arthur Mitchell with every step that we take. He founded Dance Theatre of Harlem in response to the assassination of Dr. King in 1968. By 1971, Dance Theatre of Harlem was making its debut at the Guggenheim and I've had the opportunity to present at the Guggenheim for works in process a few times now.
It is not lost on me that I am standing in the very space where Arthur Mitchell made history just decades ago and I would not be there presenting my own work with DTH with my [unintelligible 00:04:53] ballet, all of these extraordinary companies that inspire me and drive me to move forward and pass it on to the next generation. So much of that is due to his efforts and his legacy.
Mr. Mitchell created a dance company that was for everyone. He truly believed that dance was for everyone and that everyone should have a chance to explore their passion and if dance is their passion or dentistry or biomedical engineering, whatever that is, there's so much that ballet can offer in the sense of discipline and passion and forward-thinking and drive and camaraderie. All of that is wrapped into the art of ballet. I carry that with me as well. For me, it is everything working with DTH here, and bringing this work to the stage is such an honor.
Jessie: To add, being two Black women working in the classical arts, the contemporary classical arts as we call it, this is a significant evolution I think in our society as a culture and it's an evolution for Black people in the arts, for us to be in the positions that we are to create art at a high level and to continue this legacy of perseverance and enjoy and creativity. I'm living in this piece more and more every time we do it and I'm just thrilled and always so grateful for the commitment and dedication that's being proven over and over again by our experience and that's just a real pleasure.
Melissa: Claudia Schreier, choreographer of Passage, and Jessie Montgomery, composer of Passage. Their piece has its New York premiere this weekend, performed by the Dance Theatre of Harlem at New York City Center as part of the city center dance festival. Thank you both so much for being here.
Claudia: Thank you for having us.
Jessie: Thank you.
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