Originally posted on Feb 7, 2017.

Keith Lee was born in the Bronx, New York and started dancing at a young age. Upon his high school graduation, he received a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet. In 1969 Mr. Lee joined the American Ballet Theatre and in 1970 he obtained the rank of soloist, marking him as the first black male soloist of the American Ballet Theatre.

Mr. Lee is significant to DC black dance history because he was extremely active as Artistic Leadership with the Capital Ballet (Resident professional dance company of Jones-Haywood School of Dance). Through Lee’s artistic leadership, many of these dancers developed and performed at the Lisner Theatre of Georgetown University and the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

His accomplishments with Capital Ballet served as high merit and standard for many current black dance idols (Renee Robinson, Christopher Huggins, and Hinton Battle). Along with many awards, historic choreographic commissions, and an extremely well-versed dance vocabulary, Keith Lee serves as an example of the black dance excellence that has permeated Washington, D.C.

Keith Lee is the Founding Director of the Lynchburg School of Dance. He retired in 2016.