On April 11, Midtown Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom played host to the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s always-glamorous Vision Gala. The evening’s honoree was Darren Walker, the soon-to-be former Ford Foundation president whose philanthropic influence has become nearly mythological in arts circles. Ava DuVernay presented him with the Arthur Mitchell Vision Award, and the filmmaker—never one for understatement—delivered a tribute that brought the room to a hush: “Darren has always seen the beauty in the bold, the precision in the daring, the grace in the fight.”
Anna Glass, the company’s executive director, revealed that the event not only hit its $1.3 million fundraising goal—it surpassed it by another $132,000 raised in the room for the 56-year-old cultural institution. Clearly this crowd, packed as it was with cultural heavyweights and scene-steady regulars, knew why they were there: to back an organization that has always been less about fitting into the ballet world and more about reimagining it.
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The roster of honorary chairs read like a syllabus in cultural history, verve and style: actor and dancer Ben Vereen, The View co-host Sunny Hostin, curator Isolde Brielmaier, actress Bianca Lawson, artist Mickalene Thomas and model and activist Bethann Hardison, among them. Also spotted were the seemingly omnipresent Law Roach, prima ballerina Misty Copeland, Brandon Blackwood, Bevy Smith, Alicia Graf Mack and Thelma Golden (who we all know by now never misses a moment that matters).
And matter it did. Before dinner, the Dance Theatre of Harlem company took the stage for a stirring performance that included We Are All Brown – Commemorating Brown v. Board of Education, anchored by a galvanizing oration from Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund. The night ended, fittingly, with more dance—not just for show, but in celebration—with music provided by DJ D-Nice and Kenny Burns.
