NEW YORK, New York — In three to five years, no one will be talking about diversity in ballet.

That's according to Virginia Johnson, a founding member and artistic director of New York City's famed Dance Theatre of Harlem. In a few years, she thinks it will be a boring topic "because it will have happened," she says in a light but commanding voice. Soon, she says, the largely white world of ballet will be populated with dancers of color.

Soon — but not today. Not in 2015.

Today, the ballet world still has a race issue. Brown ballerinas are almost invisible, rarely in the spotlight. Pools of talent are left untouched, as major dance companies glide over people of color in favor of white dancers. Dancers of color don't often get coveted principal or soloist roles, and browsing through the corps de ballet roster of renowned institutions like the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet shows that diverse swans are in short supply.