in communities where the company
performs, teaching technique and
movement for those who have had
dance experience and for those who
have never pirouetted a day in their
lives. In February, the Dance Theatre
of Harlem conducted such work-
shops in Norfolk, Johnson says. “We
often have our dance artists interact
with people in an informal setting to
talk about their own lives and how
they came to be dancers and what
they do on a daily basis to be danc-
ers,” Johnson says. “You see them on
stage doing all these
fancy moves and costumes and
makeup, and it looks all glamorous.
But once you speak to them you find
that they’re regular human beings
who have the same worries and
problems who are very inspired and
driven by their art form.” Five days a
week from 8 in the morning to about
9:30 at night, Johnson is at the DTH
headquarters in Harlem, the compa-
ny’s location since 1973, famous for
its cut-out of a dancer forever frozen
in a leap atop the red brick building.
She spends up to five hours
in the studio with the dancers and
choreographers when she’s not in
and out of meetings. The company
has come such a long way from
its salad days in the basement of a
church, when Mitchell imbued clas-
sical European styles with a soulful,
earthy grace. Johnson was there.
“I was a young person who had
studied classical ballet, and when I
went to find a job, they said, ‘Well,
you know, there aren’t any black
dancers in ballet,’ “ Johnson says.
“But along with that came a real
sense of responsibility, that if this
was something that was provided
for me that I need to provide it for
the next generation. I need to make
sure that someone who aspires to be
something has the tools they need
to get into the profession.”
An essential tool for the young
dancers is nurturing reassurance
as they practice the art, something
Johnson says she didn’t always
receive early in her career. “You’re
trying to create something that
doesn’t exist, and it’s very frustrat-
ing,” Johnson says. “I always felt that
I was inadequate to the demand.
And that feeling of inadequacy got
in the way. Now that I’m an old per-
son, I wish I could go back and say,
‘Look, get over it. Just do the move-
ment.’
“Our young people are in the
bloom of their life, and they’re full of
enthusiasm and joy but also insecuri-
ty and self-doubt; it’s all part of that
package. And trying to keep that
balance is part of my job.”
As the artistic director, the hours
are long, the pace hectic, and there’s
a constant juggling of artistic and
business demands.
It’s a very different reality from
1971, when Johnson was a lithe
young woman eager to prove herself
as a performer with Dance Theatre
of Harlem.
But the passion for the art
remains intense today as she directs
it.
“What I learned from Arthur
Mitchell is that it’s a very difficult
job,” Johnson says, “but the joy is in
the difficulty, that you don’t want to
do something that is easy.You want
to do something that someone says
you can’t do. And if you really step
up to that challenge, the reward
can’t be touched.”
Dance Theatre of Harlem returns
to the Auditorium Theatre after a
16 year absence November 21 – 23,
2014.
28 |
AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2014-2015
| OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 29
HARLEM THEATER cont’d
Far But Close #3 Ashley Murphy and Davon Doane in Far But Close, Photo by Rachel Neville
