In 1968, at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement, Arthur Mitchell Founded Dance Theatre of Harlem. His Vision Remains One Of

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In 1968, at the height of the civil rights movement, Arthur Mitchell founded Dance Theatre of Harlem. His vision Danceremains one of the most democratic in dance. Words by Djassi DaCosta Johnson In moments of extreme injustice was going on. He relaxed the dress The company gained momentum “Arthur Mitchell created a space for a lot of people who had been told, ‘You can’t do this.’” and frustration the most impact- code to encourage enrollment in the midst of the Black Power ful art is born. This is true of the by young men who preferred to movement, Johnson recalls. “But inception of one of the most influ- dance in jean shorts and T-shirts. there wasn’t a sense of militancy ential American ballet companies To accommodate his growing ros- around the idea of making black of the last five decades, Dance The- ter of students, he eventually part- people visible in this art form. It atre of Harlem. nered with his former ballet mas- was more that he made dancers Arthur Mitchell created the ter Karel Shook to help him run aware of the fact that they could company in New York City, af- the school and direct what would define their own identity. That they ter making history in 1955 as the eventually become Dance Theatre didn’t have to be defined by some- first black principal dancer at of Harlem. The company would body else’s perception of them.” New York City Ballet. He was also grow to have a lasting impact on The roots of ballet are steeped the famed protégé of George Bal- the American ballet scene and be- in the Renaissance and Baroque anchine—the Russian-born danc- come a beacon for black dancers eras in Europe, specifically France er, choreographer and co-founder worldwide. It was a pioneer in the under the decadent rule of Louis of the School of American Ballet. dance world, integrating stages XIV. Ballet was created for nobili- Mitchell’s impulse to start Dance and spreading the art of ballet ty, to be performed by nobility, and Theatre of Harlem is said to have through massive outreach pro- it took many years for the art form been spurred by the assassina- grams at home and abroad. to become accessible to the wider tion of Martin Luther King Jr. on A budding ballerina named public. Even today, it is performed April 4, 1968. Virginia Johnson met Mitchell by a select and well-trained few. By Working in Brazil on a com- while a student at the NYU School the 19th century, ballet had spread mission from the American gov- of the Arts and became a found- from France to the world stage and ernment to assist in the founding ing member of Dance Theatre of grew as a technique in Europe and of the National Ballet of Brazil, Harlem and, later, its artistic di- the Americas. If for no other rea- Mitchell decided to return to the rector. “In that first company we son than the intense training re- US to try to make a difference in were an extremely diverse group quired and the elaborate aesthet- his community by teaching bal- of people,” Johnson says of the ics, ballet remained exclusive for let classes in his native Harlem. early days. “We were Asian, Mexi- several hundred years. Perhaps be- At the height of the civil rights can, black… I think the first white cause so much of the early form movement, in a graceful moment dancer didn’t come until 1970. But was devoted to portraying the Eu- of artistic resistance, he created a it was not about making a ‘black ropean idealist outlook and histo- haven for dancers of all colors who ballet company.’” She continues, ry, the assumption was often made craved training, performance ex- “It was to make people aware of the that non-white dancers could not perience and an opportunity to fact that this beautiful art form ac- understand or embody something excel in the classical ballet world. tually belongs to and can be done presumed alien to them. The early days were humble by anyone. Arthur Mitchell cre- The America into which Mitch- and inclusive. Mitchell began by ated this space for a lot of people ell was born in 1934 was rife with teaching dance in a converted ga- who had been told, ‘You can’t do racial division. This atmosphere rage in Harlem, leaving the doors this,’ to give them a chance to do dominated the dance worlds too, open so passersby could see what what they dreamed of doing.” offering little opportunity for

Right: Arthur Mitchell stands in front of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Dance Theatre of Harlem performed its first season at

the Metropolitan in 1985. courtesy ofImages Dance Theatre of Harlem

80 FEATURES KINFOLK 81 Dance Theatre of Harlem performs Concerto Barocco, choreographed by George Balanchine. The company premiered this ballet, its first Balanchine piece, in 1970. Additional Credit: Name Goes Here

82 Left: Virginia Johnson dances in Glen Right: Arthur Mitchell partners with Tetley’s Greening. Johnson is now artistic Diana Adams for the pas de deux in director at Dance Theatre of Harlem. Balanchine’s Agon.

dancers of color to study and ry highlights the lack of opportu- flourish in classical ballet. One of nity faced by many black dancers the people trying to expand the art after retirement. form and promote integration was Mitchell had found his path George Balanchine, who would to ballet as a young boy in Har- later become a mentor to Arthur lem. His mother enrolled him in Mitchell. In 1933, the dancer Lin- tap classes at the Police Athletic coln Kirstein wrote a letter to a League. A guidance counselor en- director in Hartford, Connecti- couraged him to audition for the cut introducing his new friend, High School of Performing Arts, Balanchine, and their joint aspi- where he was encouraged to pur- rations to start a ballet. Kirstein sue ballet. He excelled at it, earn- called for a core of “16 dancers, ing a scholarship to the School of half women, half men, half white American Ballet soon after gradu- and half negro.” What resulted ation. Mitchell met Balanchine at was the creation of the School of the school and within a few years American Ballet and New York was invited to join the company. City Ballet, founded by Kirstein “Balanchine was interested in and Balanchine. However, their African-American dancers, but joint plan for student diversity Mitchell was not just a dancer to was never realized: Administra- him,” Johnson recalls. “He was tive forces that opposed the idea the realization of an idea that Bal- of an integrated ballet company anchine had wanted to explore. consistently blocked them. When Mitchell joined NYCB, it re- Despite resistance, Balanchine leased something in Balanchine. managed to bring several black He started creating some of his dancers in as guest artists. He cre- greatest work—a different kind of ated The Figure in the Carpetfor the work, something he’d been want- famed Martha Graham–trained ing to do for some time.” dancer Mary Hinkson in 1960, Balanchine choreographed and choreographer Louis John- specific roles for Mitchell when he son performed with the company was a principal at NYCB, including in the 1950s, among others. the world-renowned and ground- Although Mitchell is often breaking pas de deux in Agon, and credited as the first black ballet the role of Puck in A Midsummer dancer in NYCB, a little-known Night’s Dream. Balanchine knew dancer named Arthur Bell was a what many great choreographers student at the School of American know: that some of the best work Ballet in the late 1940s and per- is inspired not just by a great tech- formed with NYCB before making nical dancer, but by a well-round- a career for himself in Europe. His ed individual that can offer their story was all but forgotten by histo- own insight into the execution of ry when, in 1994, a reporter found the choreography. him living in a homeless shelter, In 1971, Dance Theatre of Har- alone and destitute. Sadly, his sto- lem, billed as a “neo-classical bal-

Additional Credit: Name Goes Here courtesy ofImages Dance Theatre of Harlem “He made dancers aware of the fact that they could define their own identity.”

84 FEATURES KINFOLK 85

“Right from the beginning it was about diversity, which was very oppositional to the way that ballet was moving in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s in this country.”

let company,” officially debuted at ing themselves, and to grow into the Guggenheim Museum to great world-class artists, which was not acclaim. Later the same year, Bal- something that was happening in anchine and Mitchell co-choreo- many other places.” graphed the piece Concerto for a When Mitchell began Dance Jazz Band and Orchestra, which of- Theatre of Harlem, Balanchine fered an unprecedented collabo- gave him the rights to several bal- ration coupled with a platform for lets. This afforded Mitchell a rep- the emerging Harlem-based com- ertoire of recognizable modern pany. After a prizewinning televi- classics for his programs, which sion special that Mitchell choreo- was invaluable for the fledgling graphed, Rythmetron, the company company. Mitchell started Dance had their first full season in New Theatre of Harlem with a strong York in 1974. base, and by 1979 it was touring in- Mitchell rose to fame as a prin- ternationally with a repertoire of cipal dancer with NYCB from 1956 46 ballets. In the 1980s, the com- to 1969. When he left, he seemed pany reached the forefront of the to rebel against the homogenous American ballet scene by carving world he had been immersed in, a niche for themselves and infus- envisioning a larger space for ing new life into works like Fire- dancers like himself to thrive. Vir- bird, Giselle, Scheherazade, Bugaku ginia Johnson recalls, “Right from and the infamous Agon. the beginning it was about diversi- Through the 1990s, Dance ty in the richness, which was very Theatre of Harlem continued to oppositional to the way that ballet break racial and political bound- was moving in the 1950s, ’60s and aries, to worldwide acclaim. They ’70s in this country. At that time, were the first American ballet ‘sameness’ was what was signified company to perform in Russia af- in ballet. One of the things that ter the fall of the Soviet Union, and Arthur Mitchell was doing was in 1992, they made an internation- creating the chance for people al statement on their tour to South who had the skill—and the train- Africa at the tail end of apartheid. ing—to perform, to keep challeng- The company performed to a

Left: Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook founded Dance Theatre of Harlem following the death of Martin Luther

King Jr. in 1968. courtesy ofImages Dance Theatre of Harlem

88 FEATURES The company performs Creole Giselle, a restaging of the classic ballet by Frederic Franklin. The piece, created specifically for Dance Theatre of Harlem, reimagines the story with a focus on black Americans in 19th- century Louisiana.

mixed crowd and brought their outreach principles to the town- ships, creating a dance program that still thrives today as Dancing Through Barriers. This remains an excellent example of the impact a predominantly black and brown ballet company could make on international politics, challeng- ing antiquated racist constructs through the simple act of practic- ing and sharing their art. After 25 years as a principal dancer with the company (and a 40-year international career), Virginia Johnson returned to fill Mitchell’s shoes as the company’s artistic director in 2013. “When Arthur Mitchell invited me to step into his huge shoes, I really didn’t want to,” she says. “But I knew that the work need- ed to continue. There’s a particu- lar challenge right now. In 1968 and 1980 and 1990, the novelty of Dance Theatre of Harlem and the extreme difference of the experi- ence was something that was very powerful, whether audiences were used to going to the ballet or not. Nowadays, we’re in an electronic age where we don’t really understand or even appreciate the no- tion of the live performance of an art form that is so rigorous. One that requires actually coming into the theater.” Dance Theatre of Harlem went on hiatus due to financial diffi- culties from 2004 to 2012. “This means that there was a generation of little girls who didn’t see brown ballerinas,” Johnson says. “They didn’t have that seed planted of I could be up there too! I want to be a part of that! So we really need to rebuild that sense of inspiring another generation of dancers to come forward.” Johnson has been instrumen- tal in helping usher the company into a new era while maintaining the old legacy. Dance Theatre of Harlem is not just a ballet company or groundbreaking cultural institution, but an elegant example of what is possible when an inclusive approach to art is allowed to evolve and thrive.