Carole Yvonne Johnson (born 1940) is an African American contemporary dancer and choreographer, 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.
As a teenager, she studied at the Philadelphia Ballet Guild[2] under British choreographer Antony Tudor[3] (who founded the school in the mid-1950s, and mentored black students there[4]).
[3] The company practised modern dance and focused on "the black experience through political expression", and Johnson became a principal dancer within the troupe.
[7] During September 1966,[8] along with Eleo Pomare, Rod Rodgers, Gus Solomon and Pearl Reynolds, Johnson established the Association of Black Choreographers,[9][10][11] which was predecessor to the Modern Organization for Dance Evolvement [MODE].
[19] 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".
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.
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.
This opened with a performance by Pastor Brady's Yelangi Dance Company and Stephen Mam's Torres Strait Island / Waiben Dancers.
[3] In 1988, Johnson left,[2] Raymond D. Blanco became the new head of the organisation, and AISDS was renamed National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA).
[5] In 1994 she returned to Australia to work full-time with the Department of Human Services and Health,[b] developing arts workshops for isolated Indigenous communities.
[5] As of May 2021[update], she was conducting a postgraduate degree by research at the Purai Global Indigenous History Centre of the University of Newcastle in New South Wales.
[7] 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!".