A Phoenix Is Rising on Point
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
Virginia Johnson, the artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem, with her dancers, at an open rehearsal.
By GIA KOURLAS
Published: April 5, 2013
In the early days of Dance Theater of Harlem its members, charged with proving to the world that black dancers could master ballet, needed a certain pluck. “It was a group of young dancers that went out and carried their own lights and did lecture-demonstrations and started performing,” said Laveen Naidu, 45, the organization’s executive director.
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Dance Theater of Harlem performers rehearsing Robert Garland’s new “Gloria.”
That scrappy image has served Virginia Johnson well. The elegant artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem — and its star ballerina for 28 years — Ms. Johnson, 63, was reminded of such humble beginnings last spring, when she held auditions for the rebirth of the company. (It had been forced to go on hiatus in 2004 when it announced its $2.3 million debt.) As Ms. Johnson put it, she had stars in her eyes. But she was in for a surprise.
“I was really shocked at how few African-Americans auditioned,” she said. “And that was the moment when we were looking in this room, and it was like, ‘No, but where are the black people?’ ”
She laughed, as she often does when describing a seemingly hopeless situation. “I thought about Arthur Mitchell with all the hodgepodge of dancers that came to him back in 1969 that he had to make into a company. I said, ‘O.K., it’s the same thing again, and this is great.’ It was actually more exciting than taking top-level dancers and making them into a company. It meant that we had to have that inner-grit thing going again.”
Dance Theater, formed by Mr. Mitchell and Karel Shook, took on the barrier-breaking mission of training and presenting black classical ballet dancers to the world. For years the company was more than a thriving, internationally touring troupe. It showed that ballet was no longer just a white domain. But then the company disappeared, leaving a gaping hole.
One year off turned into nine; disillusionment set in. Now Dance Theater is making a comeback. Beginning Wednesday the company, lean at just 18 members from 44 in 2004, will perform at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
What does Dance Theater of Harlem mean today? Does a primarily black ballet company even need to exist? Since its founding the company succeeded in promoting black classical dances while developing dozens of luminous, powerful dancers, including Ms. Johnson — who still glides across the Harlem studio like a swan — Karen Brown, Homer Bryant, Lorraine Graves, Alicia Graf Mack, Paul Russell and Donald Williams. Ms. Mack is now a member of the hugely popular Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Decades after Mr. Mitchell decided to expose children in Harlem to dance, black dancers are still rare in established ballet companies. Misty Copeland is a soloist at American Ballet Theater, and two apprentices at New York City Ballet, Silas Farley and Olivia Boisson, show tremendous promise. Yet it’s no coincidence that Ms. Johnson chose to add the renowned Black Swan pas de deux to the Dance Theater of Harlem repertory this season.
“We still don’t see enough dancers of color in companies across the country,” Ms. Johnson said. “But I’m not lying when I say that people call me all the time saying, ‘I need dancers of color.’ It’s a deeper problem. It goes back further in time that we’re not training dancers of color, so our schools need to be more embracing, more welcoming, more aggressive.”
Ms. Johnson said she realizes that the School of American Ballet, one of the nation’s top schools and affiliated with City Ballet, is trying to be as proactive as it can. “Schools want to turn out the very best dancers, so they only go for people they think already fit inside the mold instead of thinking, ‘Let’s train people and see who rises to the top.’ I don’t ever mean lowering your standards. Standards are what ballet’s about. It’s opening the entry points to a broader pool of people and helping them take the next steps.”
Dance Theater’s audition process proved that to Ms. Johnson, who said she understood Dance Theater’s lengthy hiatus might have thwarted the ambitions of young, black ballet dancers. Whether or not their dream was to join Dance Theater, at least the company was a tangible prospect. That awareness gave Ms. Johnson extra incentive to get the troupe up and running. With so few outside dancers to draw from she decided to target members of the Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble — a junior company that served as the institution’s performing entity during the hiatus — to see who might transition into the professional group.
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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 12, 2013
Correction: April 12, 2013
A picture credit with an earlier version of this article misidentified the source of a photo of Arthur Mitchell and Diana Adams. It was Martha Swope/New York Public Library, not New York City Ballet.
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