Dance Theatre of Harlem: crashing through barriers.

With its outstanding dancers, excellent choreography, and determined efforts in arts education, Dance Theatre of Harlem continues to play a significant role in drawing new audiences to dance. Beginning April 8 at the Kennedy Center, DTH puts all these elements together with its arts program "Dancing Through Barriers" and a one-week engagement, during which it will present world premieres by Robert Garland, the company's new assistant artistic director; South African Vincent Mantsoe; Royston Maldoom; and Choo-San Goh.

Long before outreach programs became commonplace, DTH cofounder Arthur Mitchell inaugurated one of the country's most comprehensive community arts education systems in Harlem. "I established the company in 1968 with three bylaws: artistic, educational, and social," explains Mitchell, who was moved to start DTH by the death of Martin Luther King Jr. "We began in Harlem, where I grew up, because the schools didn't have adequate arts programs. I believe that if you teach a child how to dance, you teach that child how to live."

The sixty-two-year-old former New York City Ballet principal looks as if no time has passed since he made history as the first black star with a major American ballet company. Since leaving NYCB, Mitchell has become a pivotal figure in dance, in part because of his dedication to youth. In 1993, he received a MacArthur "genius grant" and a Kennedy Center Honor for "an extraordinary lifetime of contributions to American culture through the performing arts." Among his fans are England's Queen Mother, Raisa Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela.

In 1992 DTH started "Dancing Through Barriers" in Washington, D.C., and it now has programs in all of New York City's boroughs, Detroit, Miami, and London, introducing sixty thousand children yearly to the art and discipline of dance. Atlanta, Chicago, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, plan to sign on in the near future, reaching an additional 75,000 to 100,000 young people. For anywhere from four to eight weeks, DTH members work with local schools, colleges, and universities; they give lecture-demonstrations about dance, costumes, lights, and scenery; they teach classes and supervise teacher workshops and hold auditions for further study at DTH's school in Harlem.

Mitchell decided on the program's title when DTH went to South Africa in 1992, two years before Nelson Mandela's election. Apartheid still existed. "I was hesitant about going," says Mitchell, "but Mr. Mandela called me and said that it was very important at that time to show the children there that opportunities to excel did exist." Accompanied by several dancers and teachers, among them the distinguished Frederic Franklin, and some board members. Mitchell went to South Africa. What was supposed to be a three-week visit turned into a six-week sojourn. He made it clear to every political faction that he didn't want any trouble.

I explained that we came to share, not to teach," says Mitchell. Anything else would have been condescending." Whatever the South African students wanted to know, DTH s staff tried to explain, from how to get a visa to how to do a pas de deux in the style of Fokine. They stayed in the townships as well as in the cities. A Washington Post correspondent called DTH "a traveling university." Mitchell realized that they were dancing through barriers. "I don't mean just political barriers," he says. "I mean psychological and social barriers as well."

Mitchell developed his programs for "Dancing Through Barriers" with great care. To begin with, no student can take classes without at least a B average, because he wants to make sure that anyone who takes part is serious. An example of how he gets children involved in the art of dance is his athletes' program in which, among other things, he shows them how a good demi-plie makes a higher jump. In many lecture-demonstrations, he asks students to come up on the stage and do their own kinds of dances. He then breaks them down to their parts and shows how similar the steps are to those of ballet--quite a surprise to many hip-hop dancers.

At the end of each stay in a city, DTH gives a performance at a local theater. This in itself is a tremendous gift to the participants. "Ninety-nine percent of the people in this country have never seen a live theatrical production," says Mitchell, "and they are thrilled simply by the lighting and the women on pointe. Their whole perception of dance changes."

Nora Robinson has been in charge of the Washington, D.C., program from the start. She believes that what makes it work well on many levels is the variety of backgrounds represented. Students come from the prestigious Washington School of Ballet, Maryland Youth Ballet, small community-based schools, and three performing arts magnet schools in D.C. and Maryland. Approximately one-third of the students are white and two-thirds are black. What particularly pleased her about last year's session was the short ballet that Laveen Naidu, director of DTH's School Ensemble, had choreographed for the students in the advanced class. This participation is the kind of experience, Robinson believes, that can change young people's lives--seeing a choreographer in action and having a piece made especially for them.

Detroit signed on three years ago. Betty Brooks administers its program, which consists of two weeks devoted to students in the inner city, one week to those in the suburbs, and another to DTH performances at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. It's an intense schedule, with children taking classes all day. "Every year I see kids learn direction and focus," Brooks says, "and it even helps the parents when they realize the effects on their children."

While company members spend a good deal of time working with communities, they wouldn't offer them so much if they didn't continue to give first-rate performances. Financial troubles have curbed the tour schedule, but the troupe still appears annually in many cities here and abroad. This spring it will be in Richmond, Virginia; Bregenz, Austria; and Houston, Texas, and this summer Italy, Spain, and Greece. Meanwhile, Mitchell didn't forget Harlem when he started expanding his reach around the world. Last year, with the completion of a multimillion-dollar expansion of DTH's home facilities, his company and school acquired the environment they had desperately needed.

New choreography always invigorates a company. In recent years, Mitchell has commissioned excellent choreographers, including Alonzo King, whose Signs and Wonders has been an overwhelming hit, and the late Choo-San Goh. Assistant artistic director Garland recently joined their ranks with his Joplin Dances and Acid Dreams and Mghtmares. A veteran of Philadanco and the Juilliard School, Garland counts as his influences Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, and George Balanchine.

"I joined DTH to learn the Balanchine style," Garland explains. "At Juilliard I studied Tudor, Cranko, and Graham, but was strongly drawn to Balanchine when I saw his ballets. Now I have to learn to put all these voices together." In his new ballet, Crossing Over, Garland uses the music of John Adams, and his lead dancer is company principal Virginia Johnson, on whom he set his two previous ballets.

Besides his role as resident choreographer, Garland is also the DTH school's artistic administrator. "I like the combination," he says, "because I get a chance to see who is coming up. There's a marvelous crop right now. Dance happens in waves, and I see a new one coming up here and in Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Miami."

Valerie Gladstone, coauthor of Balanchine's Mozartiana, frequently covers the arts for magazines and television.