Arthur Mitchell (dancer)
Arthur Mitchell (born March 27, 1934 in Harlem , New York City , † September 19, 2018 in Manhattan , New York City) was an American dancer .
Life
Mitchell attended the High School of Performing Arts and won a scholarship that enabled him to continue training as a ballet dancer at the School of American Ballet . In 1952 he made his debut as a ballet dancer in the Broadway opera Four Saints in Three Acts . In 1954 he appeared as a ballet dancer in Harold Arlen's Musical House of Flowers alongside Diahann Carroll , Geoffrey Holder , Alvin Ailey , Carmen De Lavallade and Pearl Bailey . From 1955 he was a member of the New York City Ballet (NYCB), where he danced in the Western Symphony . In the following years he appeared at NYCB in works such as A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Nutcracker , Bugaku , Agon and Arcade . In 1966 he left NYCB and appeared on various Broadway shows. In Brazil he founded the National Ballet Company . In 1969, under the influence of the murder of Martin Luther King in New York City, he founded the Dance Theater of Harlem , "the world's first classical ballet company with exclusively black dancers". As an African-American ballet dancer, Mitchell was formative in dance culture in the United States in New York City.
Awards and prizes (selection)
- 1993: Trading Medallion
- 1993: Kennedy Prize
- 1994: MacArthur Fellow
- 1995: National Medal of Arts
- 1999: Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance and Hall in Saratoga Springs
- 2001: Heinz Awards
- 2015: Four Freedoms Award
- Honorary Doctorates from Hamilton College, Brown University, City College of the City University of New York, Harvard University, The Juilliard School, New School for Social Research, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Williams College
literature
- 2001: Miles, JH, Davis, JJ, Ferguson-Roberts, SE, and Giles, RG Almanac of African American Heritage. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall Press
- 2002: J. Potter, African American Firsts , New York, NY: Kensington Publishing Corporation
- 2010: Debra Levine, "Talking with Dance Theater of Harlem's co-founder Arthur Mitchell," The Los Angeles Times
Web links
- New York City: Columbia Acquires Archives of Arthur Mitchell, Dance Pioneer
- DanceTheatreofHarlem.org
- Obituary in the New York Times on September 19, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ US ballet pioneer Arthur Mitchell died , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on September 20, 2018
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mitchell, Arthur |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American dancer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 27, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Harlem , New York City , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19th September 2018 |
| Place of death | Manhattan , New York City , United States |