Months ago, we knew that there would be no African American Oscar winners, mainly because we knew there were no African American Oscar nominees.  What a denouement from that glorious year when both Denzel Washington and Halle Berry were winners for films that, if flawed, celebrated their artistic genius! While the Oscars have not been an equal opportunity experience, there have been celebrated nominations and wins that have lifted up African Americans in film, and it may be a mistake to take just one year and turn it into a trend. Still.

Marcia Owens Johnson teaches classical ballet and yoga to anyone who will let her. Until she retired from corrections recently, that meant mainly children and inmates at Lancaster State Prison.

 Johnson is almost 65, and has been either dancing or teaching dance for 58 years.

“I come from a long history of dance,” said Johnson. “My forte is dance. That’s where my desire and heart have always been.”