The Archive · Legacy
Arthur Mitchell
The Man Who Built a Home for Black Ballet
1934 – 2018
Dance Mogul Magazine · Legacy Series
Introduction
Arthur Mitchell had two careers, and either one alone would have secured his place in dance history. In the first, he became the first Black principal dancer at New York City Ballet, performing leading roles in George Balanchine’s company during the late 1950s and 1960s. In the second, he founded Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, building an institution that trained Black dancers at the highest level of classical technique and proved to the world that a Black ballet company could achieve artistic excellence on par with any company on the planet.
Janet Collins had cracked the door. Mitchell kicked it open and then built an entirely new building on the other side.
Historical Context
Mitchell was born in Harlem in 1934 and grew up in a community rich in artistic energy but devoid of classical ballet infrastructure for Black youth. He was spotted as a teenager by a guidance counselor who recognized his physical talent and steered him toward the High School of Performing Arts. From there, he won a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, the training ground for New York City Ballet.
George Balanchine, NYCB’s legendary founder and choreographer, took an interest in Mitchell and began creating roles specifically for him. Mitchell danced principal roles in Agon (1957), a landmark Balanchine-Stravinsky collaboration that featured a pas de deux between Mitchell and a white ballerina — a pairing that was radical for its time. The duet was televised, and some Southern affiliates refused to broadcast it. Balanchine did not care. He saw Mitchell as a dancer, not a statement, and he used him because Mitchell was extraordinary.
Then, in April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Mitchell was performing with NYCB in another country when the news reached him. He returned to Harlem and made a decision that would define the rest of his life: he would build a classical ballet school and company in the heart of the Black community. If the existing institutions would not train Black dancers, he would create one that would.
If the existing institutions would not train Black dancers, he would create one that would. Dance Theatre of Harlem opened in a church basement in 1969.
Cultural Impact Across Generations
Dance Theatre of Harlem opened in a church basement with thirty students. Within a decade, it had grown into a fully professional ballet company that toured internationally and performed at the most prestigious venues in the world. DTH danced at the Kennedy Center, the Royal Opera House in London, and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The company’s repertoire included Balanchine ballets, original works, and reimagined classics — including a landmark production of Giselle set in the Louisiana bayou that became one of the most celebrated ballet productions of the late twentieth century.
The company’s impact was both artistic and structural. Artistically, DTH proved that classical ballet technique is universal — that it is not bound to European bodies or European aesthetics. The company’s dancers performed the same Balanchine repertoire as NYCB and performed it brilliantly. Structurally, DTH created an entire pipeline for Black ballet dancers: a school that trained them from childhood, a company that employed them professionally, and a touring operation that gave them a global stage.
Nearly every prominent Black ballet dancer of the past five decades has a connection to Dance Theatre of Harlem. Virginia Johnson, who danced as a principal with DTH and now serves as its artistic director, is a direct product of Mitchell’s vision. Ingrid Silva, currently rising to prominence, dances with DTH today. The institution Mitchell built continues to produce world-class artists over fifty years after its founding.
Key Legacy
Arthur Mitchell was the first Black principal dancer at New York City Ballet and the founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem. He built the most important institution in the history of Black classical ballet — a school and company that trained generations of dancers and proved that excellence in classical technique knows no racial boundary.
Value to Society
Mitchell’s decision to found DTH was an act of institution-building, not just artistic creation. He understood that individual breakthroughs — a single Black dancer at NYCB, a single Black ballerina at the Met — were not enough. What was needed was infrastructure: a school, a company, a pipeline, an ecosystem. He built all of it. In doing so, he shifted the conversation from “Can Black dancers do ballet?” to “Here is an entire company of Black dancers performing ballet at the highest level in the world.”
Mitchell died in 2018 at the age of eighty-four. Dance Theatre of Harlem continues. The institution he built outlived him, which is the ultimate measure of an institution-builder’s success. His name belongs in any curriculum that teaches ballet history, civil rights history, or the power of cultural self-determination.
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