Arthur Mitchell, black dancer who became Jackie Robinson of ballet, dies at 84
Source: The Washington Post
By Sarah Halzack
September 19 at 12:20 PM
Arthur Mitchell, who paved the way for other minority dancers by becoming one of the first black dancers to join a major ballet company and who helped start the acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem, has died. He was 84.
His death was announced on Twitter by the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Additional details were not immediately available.
Mr. Mitchell, who described himself as the Jackie Robinson of the ballet world, was hired by choreographer George Balanchine in 1955 to perform with the New York City Ballet and won over audiences and critics with his technical brilliance and charisma. Still, in an era when segregation was just beginning to crumble, his ascent to the upper echelon of dance met with many obstacles, from instructors who encouraged him to abandon ballet and take up other dance genres to shocked theatergoers who wrote letters expressing outrage about Mr. Mitchell being paired onstage with a white woman.
Balanchine refused to let the objections stifle Mr. Mitchell’s talent and created numerous leading roles for him, including the principal male part in the 1957 classic “Agon” and the character of Puck in 1962’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” When television programs invited the New York City Ballet to perform but requested that Mr. Mitchell sit out, Balanchine rebuffed them, saying the troupe would dance with Mr. Mitchell or not at all.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/arthur-mitchell-black-dancer-who-became-jackie-robinson-of-ballet-dies-at-84/2018/09/19/67015ff8-bc25-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html
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It was MLK's assassination that prompted him to start a dance school for Harlem youth and later establish the Dance Theater of Harlem.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/obituaries/arthur-mitchell-dead.html
