Lorraine Elizabeth Graves was born on Oct. 5, 1957, in Norfolk to Tom and Mildred Graves. In a 2020 interview with The Virginian-Pilot she said, “I remember watching New York City Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ on TV, and I would try to imitate what I saw them doing.” When she was 8, her mother arranged an audition at a prestigious local ballet academy, where she became the first African American student. “I never thought about color,” she later said. “I just thought about being the best that I could be.” Her single-minded dedication carried her into her early years at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk, where she often found herself stooping to fit in with other girls because of her height. When she was about 16, she detoured into what she called her “boy era,” pulling back from rigorous year-round training to date and go to football games like other students. But “once that period was over,” she said in a 1982 interview with The Austin American-Statesman, “my senior year was total dedication, and it’s been that way ever since.” After graduating in 1975, Ms. Graves enrolled in Indiana University Bloomington, where she completed a four-year program for a bachelor’s degree in ballet in only three years. From there it was on to New York City, where she quickly joined Dance Theater of Harlem and rose to principal dancer within a year. Before long, she also assumed her longtime role as the company’s ballet mistress where she served as the top assistant to the company’s artistic director, preparing the dancers for performance down to the most intricate details, including counts, spacing and dynamics. She retired from the company in 1996 after being diagnosed with lupus. But she continued to teach ballet for decades, including 20 years at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Virginia. She maintained strong ties with the Harlem company. In 2012, she accompanied Mr. Mitchell to Russia, where she had toured with the company 24 years earlier, to assist with lectures and instruction at top ballet schools including the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. She assisted Arthur Mitchell teaching classes at the famed Bolshoi Academy, the Vaganova School, and the Boris Eifmann Company. She also taught Master Classes for the Open Dance Festival in St. Petersburg. Prior to his death in September of 2018, Ms. Graves again served as Artistic Assistant to Mr. Mitchell in the staging of his ballet "TONES, Il" on the Dance Theatre of Harlem. In her talk at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Ms. Graves looked back on the 2012 trip with pride: “How many little African American girls from Norfolk Virginia, do you know have gone to Moscow and St. Petersburg and taught the Russians ballet?”

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