Carole Yvonne Johnson (born 1940) is an African American

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...

r and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

, known for her role in the establishment of the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA), and as co-founder of Bangarra Dance Theatre in Australia. Early in her career she became a lead dancer in the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, and Pomare had a profound influence on her dancing style. She is also an activist, arts administrator and researcher.

Early life and education

Carole Yvonne Johnson was born in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Jersey of African-American descent. Her father, Fred S. A. Johnson, formed a branch of the YMCA in North Philadelphia, and Carole grew up Philadelphia. The family was middle class, and she trained in classical ballet as a child. As a teenager, she studied at the

Philadelphia Ballet Guild Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-1950 ...

under British choreographer

Antony Tudor Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-1950 ...

(who founded the school in the mid-1950s, and mentored black students there). She also trained under Sydney Gibson King. After graduating from high school, she was introduced to modern dance at

Adelphi College Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

. In 1960, she was accepted into the Juilliard School in New York City, and graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts. During her studies, she also attended further technique classes with the New Dance Group.

Early career

Staying in NYC, Johnson continued dance studies in ballet and jazz dance, at the same time teaching at various schools in New York, including the Waltann School of Creative Arts in Brooklyn and at the

Harlem YMCA The Harlem YMCA is located at 180 West 135th Street between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1931-32, the red-brown brick building with neo-Georgian details was ...

. She also performed with a number of ballet companies, including Ballet Guild, Ballet Players and Ballet Concepts. In 1966 she joined the Eleo Pomare Dance Company. The company practised modern dance and focused on "the black experience through political expression", and Johnson became a principal dancer within the troupe. In December 1966, Johnson performed the work presented ''Gin. Woman. Distress.'' with Australian dancer Elizabeth Cameron Dalman at the Choreographic Workshop Series of the Association of Black Choreographers. She later said that "Pomare made me the dancer that I am today... I was very technical, which he liked, but he managed to pull all my emotion out". In 1968 (or earlier?) along with

Eleo Pomare Eleo Pomare (20 October 1937 – 8 August 2008) was a Colombian-American modern dance choreographer. Known for his politically-charged productions depicting the Black experience, his work had a major influence on contemporary dance, especially Bl ...

Rod Rodgers Rod, Ror, Ród, Rőd, Rød, Röd, ROD, or R.O.D. may refer to: Devices * Birch rod, made out of twigs from birch or other trees for corporal punishment * Ceremonial rod, used to indicate a position of authority * Connecting rod, main, coupling ...

, Gus Solomon and Pearl Reynolds, Johnson formed the Association of Black Choreographers. Includes link to extensiv
interview notes
summarising the videoed interview. This was the predecessor to the Modern Organization for Dance Evolvement, known as MODE. Its stated emphases were "to be of service to professionals in dance, and to be an educational and informational organisation for the general public and people in other professions interested in dance", and its 12 listed goals showed a focus on black dance. In 1970 Johnson founded and became the editor of ''The Feet'' (also styled ''THE FEET'' and ''The FEET''), a magazine for black dancers which was published from 1970 to 1973 (23 issues) as a project of MOD, with its final anniversary edition published in June 1973. Bernadine Jennings, who worked under Johnson at the time and later established and ran Dance Giant Steps to promote professional dance artists and companies, was a contributor to the magazine. Contributors included Chuck Davis, Rod Rodgers, and

Zita Allen Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272; also known as Sitha or Citha) is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys. She is often confused with St. Osyth or Ositha, ...

(a founding contributor), and ''The Feet'' was later edited by

Alicia Adams Alicia may refer to: People * Alicia (given name), list of people with this name * Alisha (singer) (born 1968), US pop singer * Melinda Padovano (born 1987), a professional wrestler, known by her ring name, Alicia Places * Alicia, Bohol, Phi ...

. In the final issue of ''The Feet'', Johnson listed several accomplishments of MODE: a new dance service award (with the inaugural one given to

Ismay Andrews Ismay Andrews was one of the earliest major teachers of African dance in the United States. Her career started in 1929 as a stage actress, and she taught dance in community centers in New York City from 1934 to 1959. Stage actor Andrews bega ...

, an early teacher of many later luminaries); a television panel discussion; a community dance series; and the First National Congress on Blacks in Dance, held at Indiana University Bloomington, from 26 June to 1 July 1973. In 1971, Johnson was awarded a fellowship by the

New York State Council The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

to travel to Senegal, Sierra Leone and Ghana to study traditional dance in those countries, and to study and teach at the University of Ghana. Johnson's work contributed to a definition of "Black dance"; she saw it as "first and foremost, movement that is not limited to any one particular technique, vocabulary or style".

Work in Australia

In 1972, the Eleo Pomare Dance Company toured to Australia to perform the

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

in Adelaide, South Australia, and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, New South Wales, supported by the

Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 2.0 Australia (CC BY 2.0 AU)
licence. The company performed their signature piece ''Blues for the Jungle'' on this tour, which, according to Johnson, "really excited the blacks who saw for the first time how the contemporary arts could be used to convey relevant social messages". Johnson, who was at that time the leading dancer in the company, decided to stay on in Australia for a while, to help develop dance performances by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dancers. At the Adelaide Festival, Johnson was introduced to Jennifer Isaacs, Indigenous officer for the Australia Council, by South African visual artist Bauxhau Stone (who had been working with Pitjantjatjara artists in the Central Desert). This meeting led to funding for Johnson to deliver training in the form of dance workshops in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern, on the Sydney leg of the tour. Johnson set up a six-week Aboriginal modern dance workshop, (in which dancer

Cheryl Stone Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-born C ...

participated). As part of the drive to save the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, she created ''The Challenge - Embassy Dance'', featuring students from the workshops, including Wayne Nicol; Norma Williams (Ingram); Euphemia "Phemie" Bostock and her daughter Tracey; and sisters Elsie and Joanne Vesper. Johnson compared the situation of urban Aboriginal Australians to Black people living in ghetto conditions in New York. She left Australia after the workshop. Johnson returned to Australia twice during the following three years to hold workshops in Sydney. By 1973, Redfern had become a hive of social and political activity and activism. She became involved with the National Black Theatre that had been established in Redfern, at the same time being appointed as urban theatre consultant for the Aboriginal Arts Board (of the Australia Council). She strove to see urban Aboriginal people reconnecting to their roots, with their diverse communities getting together to produce song and dance, at the same time providing exposure of these cultures to a wider (non-Indigenous) audience. She was involved with

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in The Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Thea ...

's ''Cradle of Hercules'' in 1974, and then ran workshops in contemporary dance workshops in collaboration with the Black Theatre workshop, which had been created in Sydney by Jenny Sheehan (aka Jenni(e) van de Steenhaven), a young non-Indigenous drama student from the University of New South Wales, Paul Coe, and Bob Maza. Coe and Maza were from Melbourne, and had studied theatre in the U.S. with black actors and directors there. In 1975 she worked with Brian Syron to develop a six-week dance training program. This opened with a performance by Pastor Brady's Yelangi Dance Company and Stephen Mam's Torres Strait Island / Waiben Dancers. In 1976 this program grew into a professional dance course for Indigenous Australians, called "Careers in Dance", which became a subsidiary of the Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Scheme (AISDS), with Johnson as founding executive director. (Later, in 1988, this was renamed National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association, or NAISDA. The

Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre (AIDT) was the first dance company used to train Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students on their dancing career, and grew into a performance group. Originating in the National Aboriginal and Islander Ski ...

(AIDT), the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contemporary dance company, developed out of AISDS, as a student performing group (and later separated from NAISDA). Over the years, Johnson developed relationships with Yolngu dancers from Yirrkala and Lardil people from Mornington Island (Kunhanha). In 1988, Johnson left,

Raymond D. Blanco Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ ( ...

became the new head of the organisation, and AISDS was renamed National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA). In 1989, she co-founded, along with Rob Bryant and South-African-born

, Bangarra Dance Theatre, and became its founding

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

. Stephen Page took over the directorship in 1991, and Johnson continued her work in related venues, dividing her time between Australia and the United States.

Later work and research

In the U.S., Johnson worked at Black Dance conferences in Denver and Philadelphia, and lectured on contemporary Australian Indigenous dance. In 1994 she returned to Australia to work full-time with the

Department of Human Services and Health The Department of Human Services and Health was an Australian government department that had existed between December 1993 and March 1996. The Department was created when the Department of Health, Housing, Local Government and Communit ...

, developing arts workshops for isolated Indigenous communities. , she was conducting a postgraduate degree by research at the

Purai Global Indigenous History Centre The University of Newcastle (UON), informally known as Newcastle University, is a public university in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1965, it has a primary campus in the Newcastle suburb of Callaghan. The university als ...

of the University of Newcastle in New South Wales. Her thesis is entitled "NAISDA and Indigenous urban Dance in Australia in the 1980s: A story of political activism, community development and transnational cooperation and creativity!".

Recognition and awards

*1999: Induction into the Hall of Fame,

Australian Dance Awards The Australian Dance Awards recognise excellence and promote dance in Australia. They are awarded under the auspices of the Australian Dance Council (Ausdance) for performance, choreography, design, dance writing, teaching and related professions. ...

*2003:

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or go ...

, "For service to Australian society through dance and the Indigenous community"

Impact and legacy

Many academic and other works cite the influence of Johnson on Indigenous Australian dance as well as the definition of black dance.

Works

With the Eleo Pomare company, Johnson danced in the following works, among others: *''The Angels Are Watching Over Me'' *''Construction in Green'' *''From the Soul'' *''Gin, Woman, Distress'', as Bessie Smith * ''Jailhouse Blues'', as Angela Davis

Footnotes

References

External links

Listen
An oral history interview recorded 7-8 February 2011 at the National Library of Australia, Canberra. * (57:36), interview with Tracie O'Keefe {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Carole Adelphi University alumni 1940 births Living people American women choreographers American choreographers Modern dancers Juilliard School alumni