Robert Garland has held many positions at Dance Theater of Harlem over many years — principal dancer, resident choreographer, school director, archivist and company webmaster. At long last, he has caught the prize title: artistic director.
A couple of years ago, the company’s executive director, Anna Glass, and Virginia Johnson, then its artistic director, invited him to dinner. To Garland, this was baffling. Normally his evenings were spent at Dance Theater’s school, where he managed the pre-professional students. “I was like, ‘OK, why are you taking away from what I do?’” he said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, come on!’”
Johnson, a former star dancer, told Garland that she had decided to step down. Was he interested?
“I took a long, hard think,” Garland said. “For our organization — we’re so particular as a family and as a culture. I thought it’s best that we have someone that already understands that.”
And with more than five decades of ballet dancers and counting, that family and culture are significant. “Moving the organization forward would depend not only on the art that the company produced, but also on the legacy through its alumni,” Garland said. “And that is a huge thing.” In April, an alumni platform will go live, a place, he said, “where we could galvanize and connect and become a community.”