Virginia Johnson on her time at Dance Theatre of Harlem: 'It was love'

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Arthur Mitchell was a star with the New York City Ballet when he co-founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969 during the height of the civil rights movement. He was a pioneer in his own right, one of the few Black principal ballet dancers in the world. But he wanted more, a school to expose other Black and Latino kids to ballet and a professional company to offer the most talented a place to excel. For Virginia Johnson, it was life changing. A teacher at the Washington School of Ballet had been training Johnson for years but warned her that she had no future with a major ballet company. They wouldn't hire a Black ballerina. So when Johnson heard that the world renowned Arthur Mitchell was starting a company, she leapt at the opportunity.

VIRGINIA JOHNSON: I got to New York just at the moment that he made that decision and was able to audition for Arthur Mitchell, who didn't like me at all - didn't like my dancing, didn't think there's any hope for me - but said, OK, we'll see what we can do. And I got to be one of the first members of Dance Theatre of Harlem.

MARTIN: She would go on to dance with the company for a remarkable 28 years, starring in pieces as wide-ranging as "Giselle" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Then she pivoted to arts reporting before returning to the dance theater as artistic director more than a decade ago. Part of her job involved getting the traveling company back onstage and back on solid financial footing after it shut down for many years. I spent time with Virginia Johnson days before she's set to retire as artistic director. We sat down in one of the company's rehearsal studios, which is right next to a playground and a police station. As we sat together, I realized that back in 1969, at least, her race was not the only thing that made Virginia Johnson stand out.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JOHNSON: I'm very tall. I was a very tall Giselle (laughter). But I was trained in the Vaganova school, which is a very classically and very placed and very - there's a beauty to being still. Arthur Mitchell came from George Balanchine's New York City Ballet, which is where he created the style of dancing called neoclassical ballet, which is about dynamic movement and covering space and not being static - not making poses but making movement. And so, yeah, you know, it was horribly deflating and painful when he was like, oh, I'm not sure about you. But it was also an opportunity to learn something and to be challenged by something new.

MARTIN: Tell me about those early days. Did you feel like you were pioneers?

JOHNSON: We did feel like pioneers. We did very much feel like we were crusaders, that we had an important message, that we had to change people's minds. And those early years of Dance Theatre of Harlem were extremely - it was a lean time for us. It was a small company. We did a lot of bus and truck tours. We were going into small cities. People were thinking they were going to see the Harlem Globetrotters...

MARTIN: No.

JOHNSON: ...Because it was a bunch of tall, skinny Black people. And they couldn't imagine that we were ballet dancers.

MARTIN: Are you serious? People actually...

JOHNSON: I'm serious. I'm serious. We would be in the airport and it's like, are you guys the Harlem Globetrotters (laughter)? So there was a lot of convincing. So it was very much - so we had to band together. We had to be strong. And we had to be excellent.

MARTIN: The other thing that Dance Theater of Harlem did that I think people may not understand, even if they've seen it, is that even the language of ballet is very white. There's, like, the so-called white ballets.

JOHNSON: Exactly.

MARTIN: And it's not because the people are white but because kind of - well, you explain that. Why are they called the white ballets?

JOHNSON: Because the costumes are white. But so, yes, you know, the thing that people get stuck with is a very narrow definition of what ballet is. And certainly, ballet started in the court of Louis XIV, you know? But there's Russian ballet, and there's Italian ballet. Ballet is everywhere. Ballet speaks to people because it's an art form of elevation. And elevation is a human impulse. Ballet got refined and sliced and diced and came to be this thing that was about everybody looking exactly alike and everybody having the same physical shape, having the same timing, the same unity of movement...

MARTIN: Precision.

JOHNSON: Precision, yeah.

MARTIN: There was almost like kind of a militaristic approach to it, albeit on centering the female body and a specific type of femininity and etherealness and so forth.

JOHNSON: Exactly.

MARTIN: You had an incredible career of 28 years as a dancer. I think people even outside of dance can understand the toll that it takes on your body. How did you do that?

JOHNSON: Well, it was love. Ballet is very hard. And you have to knock yourself out every single day. And, yes, there is a certain amount of pain. There's a certain amount of physical and mental anguish to that. But I was getting to do what I love to do. And the challenge of becoming better than I was yesterday was something that I - you know, it's like candy for me.

MARTIN: Anything that remains a pain point for you or something undone or anything you wish you had done that you weren't able to do?

JOHNSON: This is going to sound really very egotistical, but I wish I had a lot more confidence in myself because I would have been a greater dancer than I was.

MARTIN: How did that understanding come to you?

JOHNSON: I had to get old. I was so full of doubt about every single thing that I did that I really did spoil things for myself. But I did keep trying. And I finally got old enough that I was doing performances, you know, when I was - "Giselle" came to me - I was in my late 30s when "Giselle" came to me, very old. So I at least had that little bit of awareness, self-awareness, that I was like, OK, you're getting to do this. You sure better do it.

MARTIN: What made this the time to step away?

JOHNSON: Oh, I'm old.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: You're not old. You're seasoned.

JOHNSON: OK. No, it was because this company needs more challenge, needs a new challenge, needs a vision. Robert Garland, we danced together in the day with the company. But Robert Garland is an amazing choreographer. He's somebody who's got the pulse - his pulse on American culture. And when I talk about American culture, I'm talking about African American culture, classical American culture - American culture as we want it to evolve to be, which is representative of the people who are in this nation. And Robert is a young man who has access to that kind of vision. So it wasn't about me stepping down. It was about, what does this organization need now to really keep thriving?

MARTIN: Virginia Johnson, thank you for your beautiful career. And thank you so much for talking with us today.

JOHNSON: It's my pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.