| Born in
Washington, D.C., to Madeline Johnson, a physical education instructor at
Howard University, and James Lee Johnson, a physicist with the Department
of the Navy, Virginia Johnson began studying ballet with Therrell Smith
when she was three years old and became a scholarship student at the
Washington School of Ballet when she was 13. After graduating from
the Washington School of Ballet high school division, Johnson received a
scholarship to New York University, where she majored in dance.
While at NYU she continued to study ballet outside the university with
Karel Shook at the Katherine Dunham School and Arthur Mitchell, who
founded the Dance Theater of Harlem (DTH) in 1969 to show that African
Americans could perform classical repertory as well as whites. Mitchell
convinced Johnson to commit herself to a professional dance career, and
she premiered with DTH at the company's debut in 1971.
Since 1974, when Johnson began performing as a soloist with DTH, she
has been able to draw upon her broad training to develop a wide spectrum
of dance roles from historical classical to contemporary experimental
ballets. Her most famous roles have included Mitchell's staging of
"Giselle," a revival of Valerie Bettis' "A Streetcar Named
Desire" (1952), Lester Horton's "Don Quixote," a revival of Agnes
de Mille's "Fall River Legend" (1948), and Frederic Franklin's
"Swan Lake." Johnson is most often praised as a lyrical dancer and
noted for the dramatic effect of her superb extensions as a dancer
standing at five feet, eight inches tall. Aside from her work as prima
ballerina with DTH, Johnson has had guest engagements with the Washington
Ballet, Capitol Ballet, and Stars of the World Ballet, and has performed
in a one-woman show at Marymount College in 1978. In 1985 she was awarded
a Young Achiever Award by the National Council of Women of the United
States.
-- Zita Allen
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