Dance Theatre of Harlem

This internationally acclaimed, history-making company returns to the Virginia Arts Festival with a dazzling program that includes a world premiere commissioned by the Festival and the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution. The new ballet is being created by Claudia Schreier, an award-winning young choreographer who has drawn attention and commissions for new work from American Ballet Theatre, the Vail Dance Festival, and more. The piece, created for 12 dancers and performed in three parts, is set to a new score composed by Jessie Montgomery, whose music has been hailed as “wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post). The new ballet’s world premiere performances in Norfolk are a “Signature Event” of American Evolution, which marks and commemorates historical events in 1619, including the arrival of the first recorded Africans to English North America and the recruitment of English women in significant numbers to the colony, a pivotal year in the history of Virginia and the nation. Join the celebration of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s historic 50th season, and be among the first to see this new work!