Pros from Harlem help wrap up popular beginner ballet program for Black youth

Some of the members of Dance Theatre of Harlem taught a class for young Black ballet dancers in Edmonton. Nahreman Issa has the story.

Ahead of taking the stage at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium this weekend, performers with the Dance Theatre of Harlem taught a class to young Black ballet dancers in Edmonton.

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The workshop marked the end of a free six-week beginner program through Edmonton’s Africa Centre, offered by Alberta Ballet with provincial government funding.

“We learned how to do pliés, tendus, relevés and lots of other things. Today we learned how to chassé across the floor, so that was very interesting,” 13-year-old participant Aysha Richards told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

“They were complimenting us and telling us how good we were doing,” another participant, 15-year-old Morganne Foster, added. “It was kind of surreal.”

Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. Mitchell had made history 14 years earlier by being named the first Black principal dancer at New York City Ballet. In the middle of the civil rights movement, he returned to Harlem to create a space in his home community for those interested in learning the craft.

The company carries on this work by providing community and master classes in the cities it tours.

The timing of Friday and Saturday’s performances meant the company was in Edmonton just as the six-week Alberta Ballet program with the Africa Centre wrapped.

“Hmmm… ballet?” the centre’s youth programs manager, Tawa Nzekwu, remembers thinking when Alberta Ballet first approached her with the idea. “I wasn’t so sure if this was something that would be welcomed by the community.”

But it was a good partnership opportunity, so the centre opened registration to overwhelming interest. All 40 spots for children between seven and 13 years old were filled, with more on a waitlist.

“It’s an eye opener to see that sometimes you just need to remove those barriers,” Nzekwu said.

Barriers meaning cost, time commitment, representation and more.

Both Foster and Richards danced ballet for a brief time as younger girls.

As they’ve grown older, they’ve realized how rarely they see Black professional ballerinas, such as their teacher on Wednesday, Lindsey Donnel, who has been with Dance Theatre of Harlem since 2012.

“I faced a lot more internal and external struggles with racism in school. But ballet, for me, was my little bubble of escape, and (my teacher) was so focused on technique and so focused on just doing the art form. She was like, ‘A double pirouette is a double pirouette, and if you do it well, that will take you places,’” Donnell said.

“Once I came to Dance Theater of Harlem, it was just such a beautiful experience and journey of learning to love myself, learning to love my background, my history, the skin that I’m in, and to be able to share that on stage and with audiences everywhere.”

Both Foster and Richards want to continue learning ballet.

“It’s really fun to do and express yourself through your body without having to use words,” Richards said.

“(The program) makes me feel encouraged and want to try it out more because I know there’s someone that’s like me.”

They also hope to stay in touch with the girls they met in class. That community building and the dance education has made the program a great success, Nzekwu said. Alberta Ballet said the organizations are already in talks about expansion.

“In order for us to get more Black dancers on the stage, we need to get them starting when they’re younger, for them to be able to see that representation… so that we can start a nice pipeline of these dancers coming up to start filling our stages with more diversity,” Alberta Ballet’s director of community programming, Taryn Samson, said.

The weekend’s performances will be the first by Dance Theatre of Harlem in Edmonton.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa