{"id":5218,"date":"2020-09-27T15:04:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T15:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=5218"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","slug":"samuel-smalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2020\/09\/27\/samuel-smalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Smalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samuel Smalls<\/b><\/h2>\n

Dance Theatre of Harlem<\/strong>
\nNanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theater<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Photo of Samuel Smalls in Holberg Suite<\/em>, via The Charlotte Observer<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Samuel Smalls was one of the founding members of Dance Theatre of Harlem. He performed with the company in their <\/span>first performance at Jacob\u2019s Pillow<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smalls\u2019 repertoire with the company included Arthur Mitchell\u2019s <\/span>Ode to Otis<\/span><\/i> (1969), <\/span>Holberg Suite<\/span><\/i> (1970), <\/span>Rhythmetron<\/span><\/i> (1970), Fun and Games<\/em>, and <\/span>Spiritual Suite<\/span><\/i> (1970); Milko Sparemblek\u2019s <\/span>Ancient Voices of Children<\/span><\/i> (1973); Louis Johnson\u2019s <\/span>Wings<\/span><\/i> (1974); Walter Raines\u2019 <\/span>After Corinth<\/span><\/i> (1975); and William Dollar\u2019s <\/span>The Combat<\/span><\/i> (1975). He was featured in the PBS documentary <\/span>Great Performances: Dance in America: Dance Theatre of Harlem<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smalls also appeared with the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theater in 1991 and was recognized as a “standout” performer by The New York Times<\/em>. He later served as the rehearsal director for the company for eight years and was honored by NBCDT the year after his death.<\/p>\n

Smalls passed away in 1994.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
From left to right: William Scott<\/a>, Homer Bryant<\/a>, Samuel Smalls and Roman Brooks in Louis Johnson<\/a>\u2019s Forces of Rhythm<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sources:<\/b><\/p>\n

Arthur Mitchell\u2019s Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jacob\u2019s Pillow<\/a>
\nOde to Otis Photo, Jacob\u2019s Pillow<\/a>
\nBallet in Black: Louis Johnson and African American Vernacular Humour in Ballet, Thomas F. Defrantz<\/a>
\nDance Theatre of Harlem\u2019s Repertory List, Columbia University Libraries<\/a>
\nGreat Performances: Dance in America: Dance Theatre of Harlem<\/a>
\nDance Theatre of Harlem at Home on Broadway, The New York Times<\/a>
\nDance: Between Promise and Success, The New York Times<\/a>
\nHarlem Theater Will Dance Here, The Charlotte Observer Feb 11, 1973<\/a>
\nReview\/Dance; Bearden Company Offers ‘Homage to Mary Lou’, The New York Times<\/a>
\nThis weekend’s abundance of music and dance, Amsterdam News<\/a>
\nBallet: Mitchell’s Troupe, The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

See also:<\/b><\/p>\n

Ode to Otis Photo, Jacob\u2019s Pillow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samuel Smalls Dance Theatre of Harlem Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theater Samuel Smalls was one of the founding members of Dance Theatre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5218"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11940,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions\/11940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}