The company is accepted in a completely different way than it was accepted twenty years ago. Though often, when we're outside of New York and we do those interviews, the first question is about "Well, why are blacks doing ballet?" Twenty years later! To me, it is not an issue. It is long past that. In 1969, or 1972, it was very important to stress black and white. But it's 1988. And we haven't gotten past that. And it is very disappointing that this is still the first thing people think about. Instead of: "What is it to be a dancer? What are you doing? What are the programs like? What does this piece mean?" Get beyond just the surface of it!
The world hasn't changed. It's changed, but it really hasn't changed. We still seek to inspire people to see more than what they think the world is. And of course that is what we were doing at the beginning. Martin Luther King was trying to make the world go in a certain direction, and this is a continuance of that. We're still in a situation where we look and we say "You have black skin: you have these feelings, you do that, you think that." We still are. So that function is still there for the company. I know that in time it will become different, but it hasn't yet. And we have to keep showing people that it's possible, showing people that there's something here that you think isn't.
'Little Ambassadors'
We're Mr. Mitchell's "little ambassadors." When we're on tour he's very strong about that, because when you say the word "Harlem," people think that you're on drugs, and live in the street, and have no sense of anything. So unfortunately we have to go overboard and show that we're not, that we're very solid people. It doesn't bother me, because I believe in what the company stands for. And the company doesn't stand for what is on stage. It stands for what it does to people's lives. And if you can show what self-discipline can do, then it's worth it. I find it pretty meaningless whether I can wear jeans to a reception or not. I'm more comfortable in jeans, but if I have to dress up for a reception I'll dress up for a reception, because a reception is another part of the performance.
Getting off the airplane, the people at the airport, the presenters or sometimes there's press, they see us coming off the airplane looking like artists, then it's as if we're saying "We don't really care. We're nothing special. We're not that great." I guess you could say "Oh, we look like this when we're offstage, but when we're onstage we're `fab.'" But when you're talking about people who aren't exposed to seeing fifty black people … Sometimes you go into communities where you're on the bus on the way to the theater and somebody goes "Oh, there's one!" because you don't see any black people! So they expect to see us looking down and out. And it's really important to reassure them in one sense, and also to impress them. "Yes, this is something really, really special." I think it's good. I think it's good for us to have an awareness of ourselves in the world. It's not just "Oh, I'm comfortable."
It's something that the younger dancers learn to value, though maybe not at that particular moment. But as you gain experience in the world you find out that it has value, it is useful. It's not something that bothers me, because you do something completely. You don't do it five hours a day, or eight hours a day, and then you do something else. Your life is
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