Arthur Mitchell was and still is today a strong believer in the power of education. He wanted to give the children of Harlem, the poor black Manhattan community where he grew up, the same opportunities as he had to study ballet and to develop their talents. In 1968, shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Mitchell obtained enough funds to initiate the School of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. He offered affordable tickets for his community at the Apollo Theatre and helped this way to introduce the larger black audience to classical dance. Three years later in 1971 he could found the first all-black classical ballet company under the same name.
Actually, Arthur Mitchell continues his educational vocation: he coaches the roles created for him by Balanchine in ballet companies all over and with funds of the Ford Foundation he assists the School of American Ballet in their diversity project. The Dance Theatre of Harlem is led today by the artistic director Virginia Johnson, another founding member and former principal dancer of the company, famous for her performance as the Creole Giselle, the first full-length ballet broadcasted on NBC. During the meeting with Virginia Johnson this year in February she
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Lauren Anderson became in 1990 the first African American principal ballerina at the Houston Ballet. In 1995 Albert Evans became principal with the New York City Ballet. There was also Desmond Richardson, who danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and who became in 1997 the first principal black male dancer of the American Ballet Theatre. He only stayed with the company for a couple of seasons, because the artistic director did not cast him for classical roles and only permitted him to dance neoclassical pieces. Later he founded the Complexions Contemporary Ballet