There is no trick, there’s nothing that you think you can do, that I don’t know or haven’t tried myself. So just relax and dance’.”Dance Theatre of Harlem is at Sadler’s Wells, 30 March to 10 April, then tours the UK ( ). The sound of a gushing tap and the escalation of a girl’s laughter into something more disturbing haunt this phenomenal stage version of the Dogme film, Festen. The movie is a work of genius that tackles the long-term consequences of child abuse, somehow managing to get the best of both film and theatre onto hand-held camera footage of exceptional flair.
I am a huge fan of the people who have created this theatrical adaptation – the playwright David Eldridge, director Rufus Norris, designer Ian MacNeil and Paul Arditti who, if there were awards for soundscape work, would scoop the lot for his superb underscoring of this piece. “Thirty-five years ago, when I started, they said, “Arthur Mitchell doesn’t know what sort of company he wants.

They’re doing modern, they’re doing ballet, they’re doing ethnic, da da da. Now, every company in the world is doing that, trying to find new repertoire. But these dancers are trained to do it.” He’s encouraging work from within the company. His brightest hope is the young choreographer Robert Garland, whose soul ballet Return will be included in the British tour.Dance Theatre of Harlem is now 35 years old Mitchell shows no signs of slowing down. He still rehearses dancers, still pays attention to his company “This is my life I have no hobbies. Mitchell agrees that there’s a problem, but points to his dancers’ training.

Mr Balanchine and Stravinsky, they both were just intrigued with America, with the kinetic energy and the speed, and with jazz, and they incorporated that into classical ballet.”What about new repertoire? There’s a current shortage of ballet choreographers, with companies the world over hoping for a new Balanchine. So I said, OK, we have to dance everybody’s repertoire, then they can’t say anything.”As with that coffee-coloured tunic, he was ready to adapt the ballets for his company. One celebrated production relocated Giselle from an Austrian village to a plantation in Louisiana. The company’s Firebird, included on this British tour, is set on a Caribbean island. They don’t always change things: Michael Smuin’s A Song for Dead Warriors is a ballet about Native Americans, but, comments Mitchell, “It’s doubly fascinating to see it danced by a black company.”This is Balanchine’s centenary year, and he dominates the tour repertoire.