Dance Theatre of Harlem to Honor Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell

The 50th Anniversary season of New York City's beloved Dance Theatre of Harlem will honor its legendary Founding Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell, who passed away on September 19, 2018, with a memorial service on December 3, 2018 from 5pm-7pm at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive at West 120th Street. Free and open to all members of the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) community and friends, the memorial will include performances by the DTH company, alumni, students from the DTH School and special guests. Peppered with reflections and remarks by former DTH dancers, community leaders and more, the memorial marks the official start of Dance Theatre's 50th Anniversary season which includes its annual New York City Center engagement from April 10-13. Dedicated to the life and legacy of Arthur Mitchell, the City Center program will include a reimagined version of his 1971 ballet,Tones, which he began setting on the current company, renaming it Tones II, right before his sudden death. For more information about the Arthur Mitchell Memorial and the New York City Center engagement, please visit dancetheatreofharlem.org.

Arthur Mitchell was known around the world for creating and sustaining the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the internationally acclaimed ballet company he co-founded with Karel Shook in 1969. Following a brilliant career as a principal artist with the New York City Ballet, Mr. Mitchell dedicated his life to changing perceptions and advancing the art form of ballet through the first permanently established African American and racially diverse ballet company.

Born in New York City in 1934, Mr. Mitchell began his dance training at New York City's High School of the Performing Arts, where he won the coveted annual dance award and subsequently a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet. In 1955, he became the first African American to become a permanent member of a major ballet company when he joined New York City Ballet. Mr. Mitchell Rose quickly to the rank of Principal Dancer during his fifteen-year career with New York City Ballet and electrified audiences with his performances in a broad spectrum of roles. Upon learning of the death of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and with financial assistance from Mrs. Alva B. Gimbel, the Ford Foundation and his own savings, Mr.Mitchell founded Dance Theatre of Harlem with his mentor and ballet instructor Karel Shook.

With an illustrious career that spanned over fifty years, Mr. Mitchell was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, a National Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the New York Living Landmark Award, the Handel Medallion, the NAACP Image Award, and more than a dozen honorary degrees. Mr. Mitchell passed away on September 19th, 2018 at the age of 84 years old.

Virginia Johnson (Artistic Director) is a founding member of Dance Theatre of Harlem and was one of its principal ballerinas over a career that spanned nearly 30 years. After retiring in 1997, Ms. Johnson went on to found Pointe Magazine and was editor-in-chief for 10 years. A native of Washington, D.C., Ms. Johnson began her training with Therrell Smith. She studied with Mary Day at the Washington School of Ballet and graduated from the Academy of the Washington School of Ballet and went on to be a University Scholar in the School of the Arts at New York University before joining Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ms. Johnson is universally recognized as one of the great ballerinas of her generation and is perhaps best known for her performances in the ballets Giselle, A Streetcar Named Desire and Fall River Legend. She has received such honors as a Young Achiever Award from the National Council of Women, Outstanding Young Woman of America, the Dance Magazine Award, a Pen and Brush Achievement Award, the Washington Performing Arts Society's 2008-2009 Pola Nirenska Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2009 Martha Hill Fund Mid-Career Award.

Dance Theatre of Harlem is a leading dance institution of unparalleled global acclaim, encompassing a performing Ensemble, a leading arts education center and Dancing Through Barriers®, a national and international education and community outreach program. Each component of Dance Theatre of Harlem carries a solid commitment towards enriching the lives of young people and adults around the world through the arts. Founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, Dance Theatre of Harlem was considered "one of ballet's most exciting undertakings" (The New York Times, 1971). Shortly after the assassination of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitchell was inspired to start a school that would offer children - especially those in Harlem, the community in which he was born - the opportunity to learn about dance and the allied arts. Now in its fifth decade, Dance Theatre of Harlem has grown into a multi-cultural dance institution with an extraordinary legacy of providing opportunities for creative expression and artistic excellence that continues to set standards in the performing arts. Dance Theatre of Harlem has achieved unprecedented success, bringing innovative and bold new forms of artistic expression to audiences in New York City, across the country and around the world.

Dance Theatre of Harlem will honor its Founding Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell onDecember 3, 2018 from 3pm-5pm at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive at West 120thStreet in New York City. The company's 50th Anniversary Season will include its annual homecoming engagement at New York City Center featuring a revival of Mr. Mitchell's Tones II, a reimagined version of his 1971 ballet Tones, from April 10-13. For more information about Dance Theatre of Harlem, please visit dancetheatreofharlem.org.

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