Dance Theatre of Harlem to Perform for Community
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – In celebration of Otelia Cromwell Day, Smith College is bringing The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble to Northampton for a special performance downtown that is open to the entire community.
The Dance Theatre of Harlem will perform at the Academy of Music, 74 Main St., Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for general admission, and $5 for Smith College students, and are available through the Academy of Music box office either online or by calling (413) 584-9032.
The show is part of a visit by The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble that marks Otelia Cromwell Day, an annual Smith College event named for the first African-American to graduate from the college, in 1900. Initiated in 1989, Otelia Cromwell Day provides the college community with an opportunity for further education and reflection about issues of diversity and racism.
The Dance Theatre of Harlem is a dance institution of international acclaim. The touring ensemble is comprised of dancers from around the world, including Trinidad, West Indies; Barranquilla, Columbia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; La Plata, Argentina; and Yamanashi-Ken, Japan. Domestically, dancers hail from California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
Founded in 1969, shortly after the assassination of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the school was the vision of Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. Mitchell was inspired to start a school that would offer children — especially those in Harlem, the community in which he was born — the opportunity to learn about dance and the allied arts.
Now in its fourth decade, Dance Theatre of Harlem has grown into a multi-cultural dance institution with an extraordinary legacy of providing opportunities for creative expression and artistic excellence that continues to set standards in the performing arts.
Dance Theatre of Harlem has achieved unprecedented success, bringing innovative and bold new forms of artistic expression to audiences in New York City, across the country and around the world.
The company has participated in high profile tours abroad, notably to the former USSR in 1988, South Africa after the fall of Apartheid in 1992; and to China in 2000 following the signing of the 2000 US-China trade treaty.
Smith College educates women of promise for lives of distinction. One of the largest women’s colleges in the United States, Smith enrolls 2,800 students from nearly every state and 62 other countries.