A Dancer's Life Ronald Benjamin Johnson 1957-1994 I Shall Dance in Heaven An elegy by Wilton Barnhardt Ronald Benjamin Johnson, the son of Minnie and Leroy Johnson, was born at the Naval Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina on 19 June 1957. He grew up on army bases in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska. His father served both in Korea and Vietnam. At the age of 15, Ronald began studying ballet under Steve Primis of the Academy of Classical Ballet in Anchorage. His talents were much in demand, and he began appearing in a number of productions that frequently toured Alaska. In 1978, after graduating from East High in Anchorage, he went to Philadelphia, where for two years he was a Company Member of the Philadelphia Opera Ballet. He then went to New York to perform and tour with Lotte Goslar's Pantomime Circus. He apprenticed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. He was also a Merit Scholarship Student at Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater and performed with their Third Company. In 1983, Ronald returned to Anchorage, where he began teaching Ballet at Anchorage Community College and conducting a series of summer dance workshops. He choreographed for the Anchorage Opera, Anchorage Theater of Youth, and the Alaska Dance Theatre. He guested with Alaska Contemporary Dance Company and Ballet Alaska. He performed with Nina Wiener and Dancers in their Anchorage concert. Other Anchorage appearances included "Amahl and the Night Visitors" in 1984, "A Comedy of Errors " in 1986, and "West Side Story" in 1987. He participated in Anchorage School District's Artist in Residence program by giving workshops, lectures and demos in dance for grades 1-12. Supported by the Artist in the Schools program of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, he taught a two-week program introducing dance to the K-8- grade students of Koliganek, a remote Yupik Eskimo Village of Western Alaska. In 1987, he moved with his friend Bill DuBay moved to California, where he pursued his BFA in choreography at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. After graduating in 1990, he performed in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane production of "The Last Supper - Uncle Tom's Cabin" at Royce Hall at UCLA. He choreographed and performed a solo piece with the First Ear Unit at the Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He danced in Opera Pacific's production of Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. In 1991, he entered the graduate program of the School of Dance of the University of California, Irvine. During his first year, his work included dancing in the UCI production of "West Side Story" choreographed by Donald McKayle. His illness prevented him from completing his studies. Having studied under Arthur Mitchell of Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey, Christyn Lawson of Cal Arts, and Donald McKayle and Bernard Johnson of UCI, Ronald focused his studies on the achievements of African-Americans in dance, with special attention to the function of dance as ritual. Ronald died of AIDS at Flagship Health Care Center in Newport Beach, California, Monday, 7 February 1994. His students, fellow dancers, and audiences remember the elegance, power, and emotion he brought to every piece. His family and friends remember his joyous love for life and courage with which he faced his illness. He is survived by his father Leroy of Summerville, SC, his mother Minnie of Anchorage, his sister Monica and his brother Maurice, both of Charleston, SC, and his lover of 17 years William DuBay of Costa Mesa, CA. Return to Bill DuBay's Home Page

I Shall Dance in Heaven

elegy for Ronald Johnson

Think not of a weak and winding desert river at its tortured finish,
      but rather a river finding calm 
      at last in the warm, wide ocean.

Think not of a flittering candle at the last extinguished by the night,
      but rather a spark which needs no longer toil
      because the morning light has come.

Think not today of the sick and unfortunate man,
      but rather share his first inkling of his body's return:

      To be confident again of sinew and muscle...
      first a step, sure and solid, then a leap to the galactic edge,
      then a slow sweep of this perfect arm
      returned to grace, reunited with its familiar beauty.
      So recently imprisoned small and still in grubby painful beds
      think how peacefully now he does not rest,
      see how he spurns repose, composing a dance for each of us--
      when we join him some days hence.
      And the most fetching angels do his bidding,
      and the celestial music flows to his caprice;
      and in heaven, he will laugh and tell us,
      one need never practice.

So when we cannot help but find our loss, and our grief is vexed by hurt
     and anger at youth ruined and promise mocked,

When we find ourselves holding our love for him with no place to put it,
     think rather that in his
     twirling, spinning, leaping across the eternal reach
     he has passed carelessly through our world again,
     brushed against us in his joyous dance,
     bounding to the most far constellations
     past other stray and suffering worlds of God.

   - Wilton Barnhardt, 1994

When near your death a friend Asked you what he could do 'Remember me,' you said We will remember you. --from "Memory Unsettled" by Thom Gunn, 1992

Bill at Ronald's resting place in Harleyville, SC

Has he touched you?
      Have you touched him?
      Then you know these tears.

Has he held you?
      Have you held him?
      Then you know these tears.

Has he moved you?
     Have you moved him?
     Then you know these tears.

        -William DuBay