![]() ![]() Then she got a call from Arthur Mitchell. She remained there, as editor-in-chief, until 2009. All long, broken and stretching limbs, is frighteningly intense.”Īfter a long career (twenty-eight years), she went back to college and, soon after, took on yet another experiment, a new ballet magazine, Pointe. ![]() ![]() (In addition to being determined, she was also versatile.) In 1986, Jennifer Dunning wrote, of her Blanche: “Johnson gives one of those flamelike performances that give the lie to her reputation as an almost exclusively lyric ballerina. She immediately became one of its top ballerinas – many would say, its prima ballerina – dancing roles as diverse as Sanguinic in Balanchine’s Agon, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Giselle, and the lead in Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries. A place for black American ballet dancers to dance. Johnson went to New York and, almost before she knew it, became a founding member of Arthur Mitchell’s exciting experiment, a ballet company based in Harlem. It was a lot to think about, but she didn’t let it faze her. Johnson’s hometown, Washington D.C., was being torn apart by race riots brought on, in part, by the assassination of Martin Luther King. Her teacher and mentor, Mary Day, advised her to look into opportunities in modern dance because it was unlikely – or, to be honest, practically impossible – that any ballet troupe would take her. When she graduated from the Academy of the Washington School of Ballet, in 1968, she was the only black student. She describes herself as a “space cadet,” but this slight air of detachment that surrounds her has served her well, both as a pathbreaking black ballerina growing up during the Civil Rights movement and more recently as the Artistic Director of the renascent Dance Theatre of Harlem, forced to close for almost a decade because of economic troubles. Sitting across from her at a café, her open, serene expression immediately puts one at ease, as does her voice, quiet and easygoing, but at the same time slightly formal, belying a steely sense of purpose. Wherever Virginia Johnson goes, she seems to travel on a cloud, with a kind of regal composure few possess in our day. ![]() (Click image for larger version) Virginia Johnson: An American Ballerina ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |