This, as Robert Garland said from the stage, was a momentous occasion for him. While welcoming the crowd to his first New York City Center season as artistic director of the Dance Theater of Harlem, he spoke warmly of the company’s co-founder: “Arthur Mitchell was my mentor, my hero, and he Looking up and down, ‘Fix it, Robert.’

The line earned laughs, but it had a ring of truth – Mitchell was a passionate director. And on Thursday, Garland showed he’s doing a few things right: Dance Theater, now in its 55th season, has a vintage kind of sparkle. It’s not like it was in the strong old days, but it’s refreshing. The company, along with its dancers, is more sure of itself: it is growing in sense of style.

Honoring Mitchell was a reminder of why dance theater, born after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, began in the first place. In addition to demonstrating the transformative power of ballet, Garland writes in the program, Mitchell used dance theater as a vehicle for social justice as her repertoire: George Balanchine ballets by black choreographers such as Geoffrey Holder. Presented along with the work. This considered, maintenance treatment remains.

Although Garland doesn’t have a premiere this season — he wants to get to know his dancers better before creating a new ballet — Thursday’s program featured his charming, soulful “Niemann String Quartet No. 2.” Gaya, which weaves social dance with classical ballet. . Nyman’s music is still playing, but since 2019, when the ballet premiered, the dancers have gained more flexibility and agility as they move through a beautiful combination of dance forms. And he made an additional impression by sharing the program with “Pas de Dix” (1955), Balanchine’s homage to Marius Petipa, and his three-act “Ramonda” (1898).

A company premiere, “Pas de Dux,” set to Alexander Glazunov’s lively score, was staged by former New York City Ballet principal Kyra Nichols. Watching the dancers, a leading duo and ensemble of eight, perform “Pas de Dix,” at its best, is like a glimpse of Nichols venturing into space: artful and momentarily free with the music. With such a short recording (none of the evening’s music was played live), it was quite a feat.

As a dancer, Nichols seemed to breathe through music; In “Pas de Dix,” his cast moves with gusto. Kamala Sarah and Claudio Davies, the leads, do quite well — especially Sarah, whose command and control contrasts beautifully with her expressive arms and hands, which frame her face while shaping the wind. do But the ballet is revealing, both stylistically and physically. Organizing the body—soft and open at the top and rock solid at the bottom—is a tough balancing act.

These dancers need to perform it over and over again to find their uniqueness in it—essentially, to wear ballet instead of wearing it. But it’s a start. The original female lead was the strong Native American ballerina Maria Tallchef, a Mitchell favorite. Her beauty and passion, even in photographs, is overwhelming. “Pas de Dix” is a meaningful follow-up to the company’s performance last season of Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” (1956), another bravura ballet featuring Tallchief.

Ballet can refer to many things in this day and age, but performing Balanchine well is still the same – especially for a company that, especially in its early days, danced its ballets and She was known to dance well.

At the New York premiere of Robert Bondara’s “Take Me With You,” set to Radiohead’s “Reckoner,” Amanda Smith — in tight black shorts with white button-downs tied in a knot above the waist — clapped along the darkened stage. I entered. His hands Elias Ray, who is wearing his shirt open, standing behind him, curl his fingers before twirling Smith in his arms, first quickly and then more gently.

As the choreography flickers between brisk and dreamy, the dancers – sleek yet somehow vulnerable – flow with the music. Bondara, a Polish choreographer, creates space for give and take. Even when the dancers roll on the floor or grab each other’s limbs, you get the sense that it’s a partnership.

When Smith leans over Ray’s chest and taps his fingers to the beat of the music, he doesn’t bow but leans back. “Take Me With You” is both unstuffy and unsentimental: Darkness may swirl around the world, but they’re by each other’s side, awkwardly and lovingly like a modern-day Nick and Nora.

While long, Thursday’s program was limited. It ended with William Forsyth’s “Blake Works IV (The Barre Project)”, part of a series of dances set to electronic music by James Blake. Built for dance theater in 2023, it features a ballet barre at the back of the stage, which serves first as a base and then as a launching platform for the dancers, in glowing purple, who take to the stage. Berry exercises before peeling into a wider area. Place This Forsythe work, you can tell, has been good for all of them. They wear it. They hear its beat, and they have made it their own.

Dance Theater of Harlem

through Sunday in New York City Center, Manhattan; nycitycenter.org