Catching Up With Dance Theatre of Harlem School Director Tai Jimenez

Tai Jimenez, born and raised in Queens, New York, began her ballet training with Joan Millen Mesh. She went on to study at the School of American Ballet for four years before joining Dance Theatre of Harlem at age 17. Jimenez was a principal ballerina with DTH for 12 years before joining Boston Ballet as a principal and performing as a guest artist with New York City Ballet and on Broadway. She went on to teach at The Boston Conservatory and Harvard University before being invited to take the position of director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem School.

I first interviewed Jimenez as she was preparing to enter this role, following the departure of Virginia Johnson, who retired as artistic director of DTH in 2023. This past July, Jimenez and I reunited to speak about her time at the helm and her visions for the bright future of a school with an impactful legacy and layered history.

How have these last two and a half years been?

There’s been a huge energetic purging in the organization. There was some deep energy moving through this place, old, stagnant energy that needed to go. We had a meeting, and somebody spoke up and said, “We have to do a better job of acknowledging and praising each other.” That’s been part of my ethos ever since. Part of my task has been to stabilize the school as much as possible, to be flexible and adaptable, to flow with it, to have fun, to just remember to connect to ourselves and connect to each other.

It’s about rebuilding community.

A lot of it has [also] been trusting enough to step more fully into my strengths as a leader and as a teacher—it’s an ever-evolving process.

What are you visualizing these days for the future of the school?

What the structure of the school can be. I’m not interested in echoing the model of other institutions. I think we have a model that is strong and flexible…it’s intense, adaptable, and not completely linear. It’s more centered around social groupings than it is around some external ballet rubric.

Part of the reason for that is that each generation coming out of COVID has had very different needs. They’re very skeptical, insecure. We have to see that and help them through it—whether they go on to be ballet dancers or not. Expectations and curriculum are our guides, but it doesn’t ever compensate for being present in the moment and addressing what’s right in front of you.

Ballet is a business, and front-facing images are important to keep the institution sustainable, but we also need to recognize the beauty of what’s being created in the moment for its own sake. Ballet demands that you expand yourself and that you hold all of humanity in that expansion. It’s an exquisite expression of the human body. With AI and our over-technological world now, I want young people to be reminded of what is really a gift about being a human being. Ballet gives us this image of beauty and elegance, grace and mobility. [Those qualities] are within us, regardless of where you came from.

Instilling that in your teachers is key.

Exactly. It’s not enough to just give [students] great dancing—you have to support the whole person.

We have some teachers who are doing amazing work with their students. In our Harlem Mouse/Country Mouse production this year, I really saw a shift—and a lift—not just in their technique but also in their presence. It was really magical. I can feel and see that the school is moving forward. It’s never going to look like any other place—and that’s not a weakness.

It’s important for me to have teachers who really understand what it means to give “voice” and agency to young dancers. When the kids have some input, they take so much more ownership of their movement. That’s what we’re talking about in terms of the full dancer. Instilling that confidence in each moment in the studio really helps.

Also, one of the things that I observed in teaching at many different places is that the teachers were not nurtured enough. They were given all the responsibility, and they weren’t given the support. They had the authority, but they weren’t always allowed to be empowered around their authority. That was problematic for me. Everybody needs to be supported if this is going to be a healthy environment.

You don’t just nurture the fruit—you have to nurture the roots.

I know you’ve spoken about reinstating the professional training program and possibly a second company?

Yes. This past year, we got a grant to fund six students for two years: tuition, clothing, everything. We also take them to shows, and we have additional classes for them on Saturday. They’ve become our little performing group.

So it becomes: How does that get sourced, to support this vision? Because it’s a clear vision: a core [group] of 20 students that are supported. We can nurture them to eventually funnel into the company.

But I would also like for DTH, and the school in particular, to be running other kinds of programs for the community. You know, programs for elders, or for students with challenges. And I would love to see the open-class situation thriving and more robust.

What is most pressing in your vision as you navigate nurturing young artists in this changing—and challenging—landscape?

It’s important to bring a sense of style into your dancing. You have to dance with a style that is uniquely yours. In my own teaching, trying to help get [students] there, to that understanding that [style] is a big part of your artistic expression. And that you have to cultivate that in your being, not just in your dancing.

Yes, because dancing is about spirit.

For me, joy is a part of authenticity. It’s gotta feel good in the moment. That’s all we have.