Founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, Dance Theatre of Harlem gave its first professional performances at Jacob’s Pillow the following year. One of the leading dancers in that debut engagement, Virginia Johnson, took over the direction of DTH in 2009, and she brought the company back to its birthplace in 2013, the same year when it was formally relaunched after nearly a decade on hiatus, with an encore engagement the very next year and a return in 2019. Prior to the main company’s return, the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble had been newly reconceived as a national touring entity, visiting the Pillow in 2010. In its first decades, DTH transformed the perceptions of millions of audience members and served as cultural ambassadors, performing in 41 states and in 40 countries throughout the world. This production of The Lark Ascending is the first to put the women on pointe.
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