Arthur Mitchell, dance pioneer and co-founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, died on Wednesday.

The 84-year-old died of renal failure, his niece revealed to The Los Angeles Times.

Mitchell was the first black principal dancer to be hired by New York City Ballet choreographer George Balanchine in 1955. His hire was controversial during a time when segregation had a stronghold on the country.

Television stations would ask Balanchine to omit Mitchell from televised performances but he refused and issued an ultimatum: Mitchell dances with the company or no one dances. His pairing with a white female dancer was taboo but Balanchine persisted.

“Can you imagine the audacity to take an African-American and Diana Adams, the essence and purity of Caucasian dance, and to put them together on the stage?” he told The New York Times. “Everybody was against him. He knew what he was going against, and he said, ‘You know my dear, this has got to be perfect.’”

He danced with New York City ballet until 1968, when he left to form his own troupe. After establishing groups in Italy and Brazil, he brought his talents back to New York.  Mitchell said the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. motivated him to create the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

“I could wait for others to change things for black Americans. Here I am running around the world doing all these things — why not do them at home? I believe in helping people the best way you can; my way is through art,” he said.

The troupe changed how people looked at black dancers and their abilities.

“When Dance Theatre of Harlem started, there was still a fallacy that black people could not do classical ballet,” Mitchell said 1995. “People said to me, ‘Arthur, you’re the exception.’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I had the opportunity.’”

The Dance Theater of Harlem posted a tweet to express their sorrow.

“It’s with the deepest sadness we share the news that our founding artistic director, the great, Arthur Mitchell has passed away,” they wrote. “His legacy of passion, power, and perfection will live on through each and every person he’s touched in his lifetime. We love you and we honor you!”

He has no immediate survivors.

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Arthur MitchellDance Theatre Of Harlem