Born in Texas and raised in Los Angeles, Adrian Blake Mitchell began training at age 12 and attended schools such as the Westside School of Ballet in Los Angeles, Miami City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, the School of American Ballet, Harid Conservatory, and Houston Ballet Academy. His main training came from the Gelsey Kirkland Ballet Academy (often one-on-one with Kirkland), the Ellison Ballet Professional Training Program (under Edward Ellison) and the Vaganova Academy, where Mitchell was the first African American student to graduate from the highest class. While at the school, he danced several lead roles on the Mariinsky stage, including the Cavalier in The Nutcracker and Prince Sherry in Sleeping Beauty.

He is now a dancer with the Mikhailovsky Theatre. His roles with the company include the Fairy Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty (which was considered “one of the most striking debuts of [that] season”), Espada in Don Quixote, a friend of Birbanto in Le Corsaire, a Foreign Prince in Cinderella, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, the High Brahman in La Bayadere, a peasant in La Sylphide, and a Centurion in Spartacus; he has also performed in the Nacho Duato ballets Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness, White Darkness, and Duende.

Mitchell has initiated a scholarship fund under his name with Dance in Color, a nonprofit that works to ensure dancers of color receive support for their education, and is involved with his alma mater Westside Ballet’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. 

Sources:

Adrian Blake Mitchell bio
Adrian Mitchell, Mikhailovsky Theatre
Adrian Blake Mitchell interview, Melmoth Blog
Online Master Class & Dance Talks with alumnus Adrian Blake Mitchell, Westside School of Ballet

Video links:

Jarne vody – Viva Balet!
2017 Shapran A Matvienko Stepanova Kovaleva Alexandrova Askerov Kolb Rodkin Mitchell Lantratov etc
Barber’s Adagio – Viva Balet!

Social media:

Instagram @adrianblakemitchell