Like any kid from Harlem, Mitchell, now 69, was no stranger to racism; but as he recounted in a talk at San Francisco's Performing Arts Library and Museum recently, he was the right person at the right place and time to break barriers in and through dance.
In an era when black dancers went into tap, Mitchell received a scholarship to study ballet from Lincoln Kirstein, who, with George Balanchine, founded New York City Ballet. Kirstein, however, was brutally frank with him from the outset.
"He said to me, 'You are a Negro,'" Mitchell recalls. "'George and I like you, but in order for you just to get into the corps, you'll have to be the equivalent of a principal.'"
Mitchell was up to the task, and in 1955 he debuted at New York City Ballet in a lead role in "Western Symphony," partnering Tanaquil LeClerq.
"Imagine an audience that had never seen a black man dancing with a Caucasian woman -- and especially Mr. Balanchine's wife!" Mitchell exclaimed. "I went out and there was this roar from the audience. The conductor's head shot up in the pit. But it slowly calmed down and by the end of the evening, we got a standing ovation."
Throughout his career, Mitchell, with the support of Balanchine and Kirstein -- who had wanted a racially integrated company from the beginning -- continued to push social boundaries, though he always insisted he wanted to get ahead on his merits as a dancer, not as a novelty act.
It was this struggle, perhaps, that made Mitchell the vigorous, imperious, sometimes prickly character he is today. Still, it is the energy, style and musicality that marked Mitchell's dancing and are the hallmarks of his company. With a roster of 35 dancers, drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and ethnicities, Dance Theatre of Harlem has become, for many people, emblematic of the diversity, freshness and vitality that distinguishes American dancers.
| Mary Ellen Hunt's Contra Costa Times article "Bay Area son comes home as Harlem dancer" is really about dancer Ikolo Griffin, but shucks, we dare you, no, we double-dare you to try taking your eyes off Arthur Mitchell
posted in articles on January 27, 2004 5:40 AM | t (0)
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