Virginia Johnson on her time at Dance Theatre of Harlem: 'It was love'
When Virginia Johnson joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem, it was often confused with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. This week Johnson retires as artistic director of the pioneering company.
When Virginia Johnson auditioned to be a ballerina for the newly created Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, she was already conditioned to steel herself against rejection.
Her longtime teacher, Mary Day, had warned her that major ballet companies were not ready for a Black dancer, especially one as tall as she was.
So when Arthur Mitchell, a co-founder of the dance company, told her that he "didn't like my dancing, didn't think there's any hope for me, but said we'll see what we can do," she did what she had always done: kept her head up, and kept dancing.
Mitchell was a pioneer in his own right. Already a star at New York City Ballet, he was one of the few Black principal
