Julia Mildred Harper Marston (1912-1997) was a dancer, dance instructor, proprietor of the Julia Mildred Harper School of the Dance in Richmond, and philanthropist. Marston imparted her knowledge and technique to generations of dancers. She was a founding director of the National Academy of Ballet, which developed national dance teaching standards, as well as a former president of the Dancing Masters of America. She was also a director of the Richmond Civic Ballet and Richmond Dance Society and served on the artistic advisory committee of Ballet Impromptu (now the Richmond Ballet).
For more than 40 years, she taught dancers in the studio behind her home in Richmond, and her school held annual "Talk of the Town" dance benefits at The Mosque Auditorium in Richmond (now Altria Theater), which featured 300+ students in colorful costumes. Each dance number would have 3-30 students performing precision tap sequences, informal routines, or classical ballet that had been choreographed by Marston.
Among Marston's friends and colleagues was Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, renowned tap dancer and Hollywood's highest-paid Black performer of the first half of the 20th century, and a native of Richmond's Jackson Ward neighborhood, where a sculptural metal statue stands in his honor today. Among the VMHC Collections is a letter from Robinson in reply to Marston's letter inviting him to appear in a charity event. Robinson had to decline participating since he was already en route to California for a string of performances but wrote, "However, at some other time when I’m not working, I’ll do what I can to help you out.”
