Pioneering American ballet dancer Mitchell dies at 84
NEW YORK: Arthur Mitchell, a pioneering black American ballet dancer, died at the age of 84, the Dance Theatre of Harlem troupe which he co-founded announced.
Born and raised in New York’s Harlem, Mitchell joined the New York City Ballet in 1955, after being spotted in the Truman Capote musical House of Flowers.
In an interview with the New York Times in January, he recalled the often hostile reactions from audiences when he was given his first starring role in the 1955-56 season.
“There happened to be a bald-headed guy sitting right behind the conductor,” he told local news channel Fox5 in a February interview. “He said: ‘My god! They’ve got a n****r in the company!’”
“By the end, I got a standing ovation,” he said, smiling. “I danced myself into their hearts.”
In 1957, he was offered the principal role in Agon by the Russian-origin dancer and chore- ographer George Balanchine, where he would perform opposite white dancer Diana Adams – unheard of at the time.
Blessed with a natural elegance and plenty of charisma to boot, Mitchell eschewed media attention for many years and refused to be typecast as the first black dancer to find a place in the upper echelons of the traditionally white, upper-class art form.
“Let me get in the company and whatever I get will be on my hard work and my talent,” he said, explaining the spirit of the time in his Fox5 interview.
Asked by the Times what he considered his crowning achievement, he said: “That I actually bucked society, and an art form that was three, four hundred years old, and brought black people into it.”
In June 2015, sixty years after Mitchell first broke the barrier at the New York City Ballet, Misty Copeland became the first black woman to be promoted to principal dancer.