{"id":2824,"date":"2018-11-05T04:09:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T04:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=2824"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:28","slug":"changing-the-face-of-ballet-original-dance-theatre-of-harlem-member-reflects-on-the-companys-wide-ranging-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2018\/11\/05\/changing-the-face-of-ballet-original-dance-theatre-of-harlem-member-reflects-on-the-companys-wide-ranging-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the face of ballet: Original Dance Theatre of Harlem member reflects on the company\u2019s wide-ranging impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hosted by: Theday.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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By Mary Biekert<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0 Day staff writer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Gayle
Gayle McKinney Griffith, photographed by legendary New York dance\/theater photographer Martha Swope, was an original dance member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, the nation\u2019s first major black classical company. She danced with the company and worked directly with DTH founder and director Arthur Mitchell from 1968 to 1978. (Photo by Martha Swope courtesy of Dance Theatre of Harlem)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Based on first impression alone, it\u2019s apparent that Gayle McKinney Griffith was, at one point in her life, a ballet dancer. When answering the door to her Waterford home, she delicately holds out her arm for a handshake, speaks with poise, and exudes a controlled confidence usually found with those trained in ballet. Or when having her photograph taken, McKinney Griffith\u2019s rigid ballet training will instinctively kick in, despite the fact she retired from professional dancing decades ago. She folds her arms carefully, knowing precisely where to place her hands, and lifts her chin in a way that could only complement her jawline \u2014 habits, she says, that were ingrained while training and performing as a ballet dancer with the groundbreaking Dance Theatre of Harlem \u2014 the nation\u2019s first major black classical company \u2014 through its early years in the late 1960s and \u201970s.<\/p>\n

What most people couldn\u2019t guess based on first impression alone, however, is the role McKinney Griffith played in changing the face of ballet while with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. As one of its original dance members and later working as the company\u2019s first dance mistress, McKinney Griffith was a part of redefining who and what ballet could be, helping to bring black dancers into a centuries-old dance form.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1968 by Arthur Mitchell \u2014 the man remembered as ballet\u2019s \u201cgodfather of diversity\u201d and the first black dancer accepted into the New York Ballet under the direction of renowned choreographer George Balanchine in\u00a01956 \u2014 Dance Theatre of Harlem was created with the idea of influencing a new generation of black dancers, all in the wake of an unfolding Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n

After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Mitchell, who was then heading a dance company in Brazil, made it a point to return to the United States. For him, McKinney Griffith says, it was the precise moment he needed to bring change back home.<\/p>\n

We spoke to McKinney Griffith shortly after Mitchell died in September and shortly before the Dance Theatre of Harlem came to dance as part of Connecticut College’s onStage series last month.<\/p>\n

Ballet from the beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Harlem, McKinney Griffith moved to Quaker Hill at the age of 6. Though she pursued dance and ballet starting at the age of 3, first in a dance program at Carnegie Hall where she learned the basics of rhythm and movement, it was here in\u00a0New London, at the Froman Ballet School, where McKinney Griffith received the foundation needed to later pursue ballet as a professional. For the purposes of this story, McKinney Griffith declined to\u00a0state her age.<\/p>\n

Even as a teenager, while she was president of the Waterford High School dance club and as she danced as part of the Connecticut College American Dance Festival,\u00a0McKinney Griffith says she already knew she wanted to be a ballet performer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m going to do that,\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t realize that there weren\u2019t opportunities for us, not very many, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could count on my hand the few times I had seen a black dancer, and most often, they would not be in ballet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But instead of letting the gravity of such realities sway her ambitions, McKinney Griffith applied to The Juilliard School\u2019s dance program with the support of her parents, who, she says, always taught her to follow her dreams and, most importantly, stay strong in the face of adversity. She was accepted and moved to New York City to attend that program after graduating from high school.<\/p>\n

Those lessons carried McKinney Griffith through her first years as a dance student, where she dreamt of majoring in ballet but was discouraged by administrators from doing so.<\/p>\n

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\"Gayle<\/p>\n

Gayle McKinney Griffith, photographed in September at The Day. (Sean D. Elliot\/The Day)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThere were other black dancers in Juilliard\u2019s dance division, but I was the only one that really wanted to perform ballet. \u2026 They told me that there was no opportunity for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t say, \u2018You\u2019re black, no, you can\u2019t.\u2019 But they did say, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t think that would be a good idea for you.\u2019 I just wanted to major in it, with the hopes of performing, and they told me I should go into the modern, where the majority of the black dancers were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very discouraging,\u201d McKinney Griffith says, while also explaining that today, she doesn\u2019t view the experience with animosity. Rather, she views it as the step that brought her to a better opportunity \u2014 The Dance Theatre of Harlem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was because of that that my friend recommend I audition for the Dance Theatre of Harlem and that I met Arthur Mitchell,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, at that time, was dancing in the roles, choreographed by Balanchine, that would come to define his career \u2014 a pas de deux with NYC Ballet principal dancer Diana Adams, for example, in \u201cAgon,\u201d and later, a role as Puck in \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

But McKinney Griffith says she wasn\u2019t entirely familiar with Mitchell at that point.<\/p>\n

To determine whether she was interested in joining the DTH, McKinney Griffith went to see Mitchell perform. It was a first impression she says she\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fantastic,\u201d she says. \u201cHe has a style and aura about him that commands the stage. But not only because of his skin color, but because he is who he is. He just emulated this wonderful energy, and Balanchine\u2019s style of movement lends itself to his form and his way of expressing ballet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convinced of Mitchell, his vision and his dance ability, McKinney Griffith auditioned shortly after, before ultimately being accepted into the group in 1968.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I was) scared to death. Just scared. Just heart pounding. But I wanted to dance, because I wanted to show what I could do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\"Dance<\/p>\n

Dance Theater of Harlem company, circa 1969. Gayle McKinney Griffith is fourth from the right. (Photo courtesy of Dance Theatre of Harlem)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Starting small<\/strong><\/p>\n

McKinney Griffith remembers those beginning years with the Dance Theater of Harlem fondly, though they were difficult and rigorous, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to prove ourselves to the critics,\u201d she says. \u201cAt that point, and even still, ballet was seen as a typically European, white, aristocratic form of dance \u2026 It was considered very elitist in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would say that perhaps our bodies were not suited for this type of movement,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we had to prove that, through our expertise, we were worthy. And there were many fallacies and misconceptions. It was more like they didn\u2019t know that we could do this. Or \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t know you could do an arabesque this way.\u2019 We had to show them otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Starting small, the group located themselves in the basement of the Church of the Master in a room that also functioned as a recreation hall on\u00a0Morningside Avenue\u00a0in Harlem. While looking through photo albums of those early days, McKinney Griffith points out dancers rehearsing under basketball hoops and visiting school children throughout the borough to teach and perform.<\/p>\n

The point of that, she says, was to bring the art of, and their love for, ballet to the next generation of black dancers, while also trying to establish themselves as a premier dance company, one that was as competitive as other dance companies nationwide \u2014 a hard feat considering that black ballet dancers were not the norm within an 18th-century European art form.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went everywhere, we danced everywhere,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were just as good as the white dancers, and Arthur made sure we trained with the best of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinney Griffith remembers being taught by esteemed dancers and choreographers, some of which were Balanchine’s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to learn the Balanchine style, and Arthur had the style, but he wanted us on pointe to really learn what the step really is. So Balanchine\u2019s ballerinas would train us, and we would go to the New York City Ballet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But it was Mitchell\u2019s driving vision behind the DTH that came to shape the group in a unique and distinctive way.<\/p>\n

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\"Gayle<\/p>\n

Gayle McKinney Griffith, during her time with Dance Theatre of Harlem. (Photo courtesy of Dance Theatre of Harlem)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt was all very profound. It touched all of us because we knew we were doing something that needed to be done. We were breaking barriers, we were creating history and we were performing and doing what we loved,” McKinney Griffith saya.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t realize the impact we were having, but we were aware of it,\u201d\u00a0she continues. \u201cAs I look back, it was really a tremendous thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Continue after the jump<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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