VIRGINIA JOHNSON
(Artistic Director)
A founding member of
Dance Theatre of Harlem,
Virginia Johnson was one of
its principal ballerinas with a
career that spanned nearly 30
years. After retiring in 1997, Johnson went on
to found Pointe Magazine and was editor-in
chief for 10 years.
A native of Washington, D.C., 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.
Virginia 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 and 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.
ARTHUR MITCHELL
(Co-Founder and Artistic
Director Emeritus)
Arthur Mitchell is known
around the world for creating
and sustaining the Dance
Theatre of Harlem, the
internationally acclaimed ballet company he cofounded
with Karel Shook in 1969. Following
a brilliant career as a principal artist with the
New York City Ballet, 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, 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
24 CENTERBILL • MARCH 2018
subsequently a full scholarship to the School
of American Ballet. In 1955, he became the
first male African-American to become a
permanent member of a major ballet company
when he joined New York City Ballet. 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, Mitchell
founded Dance Theatre of Harlem with his
mentor and ballet instructor Karel Shook.
With an illustrious career that has spanned
over fifty years, Mitchell is 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.
ANNA GLASS
(Executive Director)
Glass has been involved
in the performing arts
as both an artist and arts
administrator for more
than twenty years. Glass
recently produced Carmen de Lavallade’s
newest solo show, As I Remember It, an
intimate portrait of this legendary artist.
Anna previously served as the Managing
Director of 651 ARTS, a presenting/
producing arts organization dedicated
to celebrating contemporary performing
arts of the African Diaspora. While at
651 ARTS, she co-produced numerous
projects, including the highly regarded
national tour of FLY: Five First Ladies of
Dance.
Anna has served as a consultant
providing strategic planning and
fundraising guidance to various non-profit
arts organizations, including Urban Bush
Women and the Weeksville Heritage Center.
She currently serves on the board of the
Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
She has served as a Hub Site for the
New England Foundation for the Arts’