It’s still rare to see a black couple onstage, given the dearth of black dancers at major companies and the low numbers who are elevated to the higher tiers. (ABT has 28 principals and soloists, and though many are dancers of color, Copeland and Royal are the only African Americans to attain those titles.) The exception is Dance Theatre of Harlem, which the late Arthur Mitchell founded in 1968 to give African American ballet dancers the opportunities they are, 50 years later, still denied.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times