Virginia Johnson - Founding Dance Company Member and Star Prima

DSA
Jan 31, 2021
2 min read

Hi Dancers!

I hope all of you had a great break over the holidays! Plus, it'll be reading week before we all know it! To start back up with the blog after the break, here's the first posting! This week's feature is Virginia Johnson! She is best known for creating the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969 as a founding company member, and prima ballerina, and returned to it in 2009 as its artistic director.

"I’m an individual. I have a dream, I should be able to pursue that dream." - Virginia Johnson

Virginia Johnson was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She began training in classical ballet at the age of three under Therrell Smith, a friend of her mother's. When she was thirteen years old she was accepted as a scholarship student at The Washington School of Ballet, where she trained under Mary Day and was the only African-American student. She graduated from the school in 1968. Johnson moved to New York City and enrolled as a dance major at New York University. While a student there, she took a class with Arthur Mitchell and was invited to help start a ballet company with him. She became a founding member of Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969 and was promoted to the rank of principal dancer. She danced lead roles in Agon, A Streetcar Named Desire, Creole Giselle, Concerto Barocco, Allegro Brillante, Fall River Legend, Swan Lake, Les Biches, and Glen Tetley's Voluntaries. After a twenty-eight year career with the company, Johnson retired and enrolled as a communications student at Fordham University. She was later hired as the inaugural editor-in-chief of Pointe Magazine and served in that capacity from 2000 until she left in 2009 to become the artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem.