SJCC Arthur Mitchell African American Man in A Dance Discussion

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December 1, 1957

When George Balanchine’s modernist masterpiece Agon premiered at City Center on December 1, 1957, it left the audience euphoric and vaguely shell-shocked. “We knew we were part of history,” says Arthur Mitchell, who danced Agon’s climactic pas de deux with Diana Adams.

Russian Choreographer, George Balanchine choreographed Arthur Mitchell, an African American man in a dance with
Diana Adams, a white ballerina in the time of civil rights. Balanchine, Mitchell and Adams were aware of the controversy of the central pas de deux in Agon. Arthur Mitchell dances with Diana Adams, in ways that brings their bodies into several points of contact. Mitchell states, “He used our skin tones as part of the choreography,”

Mitchell, was promoted to soloist in 1958 and principal in 1962. During the civil rights movement many Americans were opposed to an interracial couple demonstrating any body contact or romantic gestures, especially in the South were a plethora of lynchings occurred often.