The internationally acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem is celebrating close to 50 years of creating vivid and ingenious forms of expression, bringing a contemporary flair to ballet repertoire and to diverse international audiences. Arthur Mitchell, the first African-American male principal dancer in a major U.S. ballet company, and the late Karel Shook founded the company as a response to the growing need for more artistic opportunities for children, especially those living in Harlem. Since then, this multicultural dance ensemble has achieved extraordinary success with powerful messages of self-reliance, artistic relevance and individual responsibility.