This is a list of notable African-American ballerinas.
This is a list of notable African-American ballerinas.
Raven Wilkinson was one of the first African-American ballerinas allowed to join a ballet company. During the 1950s, she danced with the Ballets Russes under the condition that she pose as a white woman by painting her face. After two years of increasing racial discrimination, including threats in the South, she left Ballets Russes and eventually landed a spot in the Dutch National Ballet. [1]
Janet Collins is the first African American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera ballet. She faced some of the same racial controversies as Raven Wilkinson with Ballets Russes before joining the Metropolitan Opera. [2]
Debra Austin was the very first African-American ballerina to receive a principal dancer contract with a major American ballet company [3] in 1982 with the Pennsylvania Ballet. There she danced the principal roles in Swan Lake , Giselle , Coppélia , and La Sylphide . Dancing these roles with a white partner was a further breakthrough. Before that time, starting in 1974, Austin was dancing principal and solo roles in George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. Balanchine himself choreographed solos for her as did John Clifford who gave her her first principal role in his ballet Bartók No. 3 (to Piano Concerto No. 3) [4] which was noticed by The New York Times [5] as an historical first for that company.[ citation needed ]
Lauren Anderson is the first African-American principal dancer of the Houston Ballet. [6]
Llanchie Stevenson was the first African-American dancer at Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company and later at the National Ballet of Washington, D.C. She was a founding company member and principal dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem. [7]
Between 1996 and 2003, Aesha Ash danced with the New York City Ballet, where she was the only black woman in the company during most of that time. After that, she joined the Béjart Ballet in Switzerland, then the Alonzo King LINES Ballet in 2007, and retired in 2009. In 2011, she founded the Swan Dream Project to encourage African-American children to start ballet, which includes a summer camp at her hometown, Rochester, New York, and an after-school course in San Jose, California, where she lived at the time. When the School of American Ballet started its diversity committee in 2015, she was one of its founding members. She then began teaching at the school as a guest. In 2020, she joined the school's permanent faculty, and became its first African-American female full-time faculty member. [8] [9] [10]
Misty Copeland had a late start in dance, but became one of the few African-American ballerinas to be appointed as a soloist. [11] In June 2015, Copeland became the first African-American female principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre's 75-year history. [12]
Michaela DePrince was born in Sierra Leone and has vitiligo, and adopted by an American couple at age four, and started ballet soon. She was featured in the 2011 ballet documentary First Position . Her career started in Dance Theatre of Harlem, and was the youngest dancer there. She then joined the Dutch National Ballet, though at the time she is the only dancer of African origin. She is now a soloist at the company. [13] Michaela has left the Dutch National Ballet, and has joined the Boston Ballet in 2021 as a second soloist. [14]
Precious Adams trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia, but faced discrimination due to her race including being left out of performances, being prevented from taking part in auditions, and being told to "try and rub the black off." [15] [16] [17] She joined the English National Ballet in 2014, and was promoted to First Artist in 2017. [18] In September 2018, Adams announced that she would no longer perform on stage while wearing pink tights, instead wearing brown tights to match her skin tone. She received criticism from within the ballet industry for her decision, but was supported by the director of the English National Ballet, Tamara Rojo. [19]
Anne Benna Sims was the first African-American danseuse at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) [20] and the first female African-American soloist in the company's history. Sims danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in 1972. At ABT she was in the first cast of the company premiere of Paul Taylor's Airs (reconstructed by Eileen Cropley); other members of the cast were Lisa Rinehart, Janet Shibata, Rebecca Wright, Brian Adams, Warren Conover and Robert La Fosse. She had earlier been featured in a revival of Antony Tudor's Undertow with Peter Fonseca.
Virginia Johnson was a founding company member and prima ballerina of Dance Theatre of Harlem [21] —known for being the "first Black classical ballet company" and "the first ballet company to prioritize Black dancers".[ citation needed ] She joined Dance Theatre of Harlem under its co-founders, Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, in 1969 when the company was founded. In 2009, Johnson returned to Dance Theatre of Harlem as the company's artistic director. [21]
Karen Brown danced for Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1973 to 1995. She worked with Arthur Mitchell, Frederic Franklin, Alexandra Danilova, Agnes de Mille and Geoffrey Holder. She served as director of education at the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance and was the first African-American woman to direct a ballet company when she served as artistic director of Oakland Ballet Company in California. [22]
Alicia Graf Mack joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem at the invitation of Arthur Mitchell, but left the company at age 19 due to injuries. After she finished a degree at the Columbia University School of General Studies, she rejoined the company as a principal dancer, and stayed until the company disband in 2004. She joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater the following year. [23] [24] She left in 2008 due to another injury, then finished a master's degree, and joined the faculty of Webster University. [25] She danced with the Ailey company full-time between 2011 and 2014. [26] [27] After that, she started teaching at University of Houston. In 2018, she became the director of dance division at Juilliard School. She is the first woman of color and youngest person to hold this post. [28] [29]
Olivia Boisson is a dancer with New York City Ballet. [30]
Sydney Magruder Washington is a ballet dancer and mental health advocate. [31]
Chyrstyn Fentroy is a principal dancer with Boston Ballet. [32]
Alicia Holloway is a dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem who formerly danced with Suzanne Farrell Ballet. [33]
The United States of America is the home of the hip hop dance, swing, tap dance and its derivative Rock and Roll, and modern square dance and one of the major centers for modern dance. There is a variety of social dance and performance or concert dance forms with also a range of traditions of Native American dances.
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House in the spring and a shorter season at the David H. Koch Theater in the fall; the company tours around the world the rest of the year. The company was scheduled to have a 5-week spring season at the MET preceded by a 2-week season at the Koch Theater beginning in 2020. ABT is the parent company of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, and was recognized as "America's National Ballet Company" in 2006 by the United States Congress.
Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) is an American professional ballet company and school based in Harlem, New York City. It was founded in 1969 under the directorship of Arthur Mitchell and later partnered with Karel Shook. Milton Rosenstock served as the company's music director from 1981 to 1992. The artistic director has been Robert Garland since 2022. The DTH is renowned for being both "the first Black classical ballet company", and "the first major ballet company to prioritize Black dancers".
Arthur Mitchell was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and founder and director of ballet companies. In 1955, he was the first African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to principal dancer the following year and danced in major roles until 1966. He then founded ballet companies in Spoleto, Washington, D.C., and Brazil. In 1969, he founded a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem. Among other awards, Mitchell was recognized as a MacArthur Fellow, inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, and received the United States National Medal of Arts and a Fletcher Foundation fellowship.
Janet Collins, OblSB was an African American prima ballerina, choreographer, and teacher. She performed on Broadway, in films, and appeared frequently on television. She was among the pioneers of black ballet dancing, one of the few classically trained Black dancers of her generation.
Robert Garland is the artistic director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where he was a principal dancer and their first official resident choreographer. He has also choreographed for the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the Oakland Ballet, among many others.
Misty Danielle Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the three leading classical ballet companies in the United States. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to a principal dancer in ABT's 75-year history.
Lorena Feijóo is a Cuban former ballet dancer. Her dance career started in 1988 at the Cuban National Ballet, but left Cuba two years later for more opportunities. After stints at Ballet de Monterrey, Royal Ballet of Flanders and Joffrey Ballet, she joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1999 as a principal dancer, and retired in 2017. She then became an associate artistic director of Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre. Her sister, Lorna Feijóo, was also a ballet dancer.
Anne Benna Sims was the first African-American danseuse at American Ballet Theatre and the first African-American soloist in the company's history. Sims' professional career began with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens where she danced in the corps de ballet. In 1972 she was invited to join the Geneva Opera Ballet by company director Alfonso Cata, who became her mentor. When Cata assumed the director position of the Frankfurt Opera Ballet, he offered Sims a position as a soloist. One year later, Sims became a principal dancer. In 1977, Sims returned to the United States and joined the Eglevsky Ballet Company as a principal dancer. In 1978, she performed in Ballet on Broadway. Sims, who joined American Ballet Theatre in late 1978, became the first African American female to hold a contract with the ABT company.
Michaela Mabinty DePrince is a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer, currently dancing with the Boston Ballet. She rose to fame after starring in the documentary First Position in 2011, following her and other young ballet dancers as they prepared to compete at the Youth America Grand Prix. With her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince, she authored the book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. DePrince formerly danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem as the youngest dancer in the history of the company and was a former soloist with the Dutch National Ballet. Since 2016, Michaela is a goodwill ambassador with the Dutch organization War Child, based in Amsterdam.
Anne Raven Wilkinson was an American dancer who is credited with having been the first African-American woman to dance for a major classical ballet company. Wilkinson broke the color barrier in 1955 when she signed a contract to dance full-time with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She was promoted to soloist during her second season with the troupe, and remained with the company for six years. Wilkinson later became a mentor to American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland.
Stella Abrera is a Filipina-American ballet dancer. She danced as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre until her retirement in 2020, and is the company's first Filipina principal ballerina. She then became the artistic director of the dance cultural park Kaatsbaan, and in September 2022 took up the role of artistic director of the ABT JKO School. following Cynthia Harvey's departure in May.
Aminah L. Ahmad, formerly known professionally as Llanchie Stevenson, is an American ballet dancer who was the first African-American dancer at Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company, the first African-American female dancer at the National Ballet of Washington, and an original company member and former principal dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem. She retired from dancing upon her conversion to Islam.
Chyrstyn Mariah Fentroy is an American ballet dancer. She currently dances as a principal with the Boston Ballet and is a former principal dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem. When Fentroy joined Boston Ballet in 2017, she was the first African-American female dancer to join the company in a decade.
Stephanie Renee Dabney was an American dancer who performed as a prima ballerina with Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1979 through 1994. Dabney is best known for her performances in John Taras' The Firebird, which she performed all over the world, as well as at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Skylar Paley Brandt is an American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.
Alicia Graf Mack is an American dancer and teacher. She danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and taught at Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University, and University of Houston. As the youngest and first Black Dean and Director of the Dance Division at Juilliard School, a position she attained in 2018, she has been credited with "remaking Juilliard Dance."
Ingrid Silva is a Brazilian ballet dancer who currently performs with the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City.
Black women have been traditionally underrepresented in ballet. In the 15th and 16th centuries, ballet began in Italian Renaissance courts, where it was largely dominated and influenced by the aristocracy. Ballet later spread to France and was developed under Louis XIV. After the first professional theatrical ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, was established in 1669, ballet spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Ballet eventually arrived in the United States, and by 1933, the San Francisco Ballet, the first professional ballet company in the United States, was founded.
Discrimination in dance refers to unequal treatment of performance artists based on white dominant culturally desired symmetry and unified lines.