I could wait for others to change things for black Americans. Here I am running around the world doing all these things - why not do them at home? I believe in helping people the best way you can; my way is through art.
I said I would [join the New York City Ballet] with one condition: that there be no publicity that a negro - at that time we used the word 'negro' - was breaking any kind of racial barrier. I wanted to get in the company on my own merits.
When Dance Theatre of Harlem started, there was still a fallacy that black people could not do classical ballet. People said to me, "Arthur, you're the exception." "No," I said, "I had the opportunity."