BHS Day 25: Arthur Mitchell

This month's last Entertainment Spotlight focuses on an area that I find to be a beautiful blend of both art and entertainment--dance. Dance is a powerful form of self-expression that many African-Americans have used in order to convey a message, to tell a story or to introduce themselves, all while being entertaining to the audience. Maybe I'll change the lineup a bit for next year's installment of BHS so that I can focus on a few more dancers in different genres. But there's still a year to think about that. Let's get to today's Spotlight!

Source

Name: "The Pied Piper of Dance" Arthur Mitchell, 1934--

Profession: Dancer, choreographer and director

Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his accomplishments in the dance industry and his efforts to create opportunities for Black dancers

Accomplishments:

--Created the first Black classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem

--Was the second Black dancer to be added to the New York City Ballet

--Became principal dancer throughout his tenure with NYCB

--Served on several committees at state & national levels

--With the Dance Theatre of Harlem, created the first American ballet to win the Laurence Olivier award for Best New Dance Production

--Helped create ballet companies in Washington, D.C., Italy, and Brazil

--Was the recipient of several honorary doctorate's degrees from a number of prestigious universities

--Was inducted in the National Museum of Dance's Hall of Fame

--Created the Dancing Through Barriers program to bring dance workshops and lectures to inner-city kids in the US and England

--Received the Kennedy Center Honors award

--Was presented with a United States National Medal of Arts by then-President Bill Clinton

--Had a pas de deux created for his part in Agon in his interracial dance routine with Diana Adams, which was a controversial move for the times

Further reading links:

Wikipedia | Brief Biographies | AA Registry | Flavorwire

At one time, I thought I was going to grow up and become a dancer. My emerging clumsiness begged and later demanded me to consider the error in my thinking, and I accepted that unless it was out on the dance floor on the club (and even that has since come to an end), it just wasn't gonna happen for me. lol Arthur Mitchell, like many of the other people on this year's list, broke a lot of ground for Blacks in his chosen industry. But there's still so much more to do, which is why accomplishments like Misty Copeland's are such a big deal. But in appreciating those, we have to look back at those who paved the way, which is another reason why I wanted to feature Arthur Mitchell today. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you tomorrow!