Carole Johnson's "unconscious quest" ever since her Juilliard days was to do something different, to make a significant contribution to dance. When she watched the Aboriginal dancers who participated in the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics—many of whom had studied or taught at the school she helped establish—she knew she had done just that.Serving as a liaison between modern dance and the traditional dances of the Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples of Australia, Carole Johnson (B.S. '63, dance) has always stood her ground as a woman of persistence. Growing up in New Jersey and Philadelphia, she was supported by her family in her endeavors to dance from the very beginning. "I was always athletic. As a baby I was always doing tricks in the crib. My mother tells the story that she went to the ballet when she was carrying me and maybe that's where I got the desire to dance."
Carole Johnson and Bree-an Munns, a dance student, in 1993. (Photo by Elaine Pelot Kitchener)
As a young African-American growing up in the 1950s, Johnson was faced with racial bias. She found her escape from social oppression in dance. The Philadelphia Ballet Guild was one of the few non-segregated institutions at the time. Johnson had the great opportunity to flourish as a young dancer under the tutelage of Antony Tudor, Madeleine Gavers, and Alfredo Corvino. She felt the fire within to learn. "I persisted … I wanted more than anything else in the world to be a dancer."Johnson's determination led her to Juilliard. "My earliest memory of Juilliard is actually the first audition … it is memorable because I did not pass." Her parents suggested she apply at other schools, and she began her college studies at Adelphi College on Long Island in the fall of 1958. Johnson did not give up too easily: "I knew I would get into Juilliard. After the first year at Adelphi, I auditioned again, and the second time I was accepted."At Juilliard, she could achieve exactly what she wanted. "I was so happy to be dancing all day," she recalls. She studied Martha Graham technique with Helen McGehee, Ethel Winter, Bertram Ross, Mary Hinkson, and Donald McKayle. Ballet teacher Margaret Black was "the best and greatest teacher that I ever had in relation to helping me to understand placement. I have patterned my teaching after her." Johnson flourished in her years at Juilliard, yet had to deal with the racial biases of the time once she graduated.In the mid 1960s Johnson joined Eleo Pomare's newly formed dance company and became part of the vibrant Harlem dance scene. She ran the Harlem Cultural Council's Dancemobile for two years, and formed the organization that presented the first National Congress of Blacks in Dance, with some 400 participants.Through touring with Pomare, she came to Australia—the first place she realized she could be "totally free from racial thoughts. I could just work in the dance classes. Somehow there were no racial barbs directed at African-Americans. In many ways they were admired." She had found an environment in which she could grow even more as a dancer, and stayed.In the early '70s, Johnson introduced modern dance and the concept of performing as a career to the Indigenous people, who were also struggling to maintain their own dance traditions as they lost their land and moved into the cities. "People saw that through dance they could express themselves in relation to social and political issues; the contemporary dance had a purpose," she says. "What I was doing was just an extension of what I had been doing in the U.S., working with other black people who had been oppressed and repressed." But it wasn't quite the same—at home, she had been working with professionals; in Australia, she was starting from the very beginning.Johnson played a vital role in establishing Naisda, the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association, a school that integrates mainland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance skills with higher education accreditation. Her 13 years of persistent hard work saw their culmination in the founding of the Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia, a professional company. In 1999 Johnson was inducted into Australia's Dance Hall of Fame, and in 2003 she received the Australian Government Centenary Medal for her work with the Indigenous community through dance.In her early 30s, Johnson faced the decision of whether to return to the U.S. and become a ballet dancer or remain in Australia and shift toward becoming an administrator, teacher, writer, and mother. She stayed—"and I am glad I made that decision. I eventually had a wonderful son."—Gary Gatzke
