Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the third Monday of January each year. King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law and civil society. The movement led to several groundbreaking legislative reforms in the United States.
George Balanchine was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
Suzanne Farrell is a former American ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
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.
The company Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo was formed in 1932 after the death of Sergei Diaghilev and the demise of Ballets Russes. Its director was Wassily de Basil, and its artistic director was René Blum. They fell out in 1936 and the company split. The part which de Basil retained went through two name changes before becoming the Original Ballet Russe. Blum founded Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, which changed its name to Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo when Léonide Massine became artistic director in 1938. It operated under this name until it disbanded some 20 years later.
Theme and Variations is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to the final movement of Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 3. The ballet was made for Ballet Theatre, and premiered on November 26, 1947, at the City Center 55 Street Theater, with the two leads danced by Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch.
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme refers to two different ballets by George Balanchine set to Richard Strauss's Concert Suite (1917), with a libretto after Molière's 17th-century comédie-ballet of the same name.
The Four Temperaments or Theme and Four Variations is an orchestral work and ballet by Paul Hindemith. Although it was originally conceived as a ballet for Léonide Massine, the score was ultimately completed as a commission for George Balanchine, who subsequently choreographed it as a neoclassical ballet based on the theory of the four temperaments.
The sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., comprise an extensive catalog of American writing and oratory – some of which are internationally well-known, while others remain unheralded and await rediscovery.
Ivesiana is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to compositions by Charles Ives. The ballet premiered on September 14, 1954, four months after Ives's death, at the City Center of Music and Drama, performed by the New York City Ballet. Balanchine made several changes to the ballet since, including adding and removing sections of the ballet, and the final version of Ivesiana consists of Central Park in the Dark, The Unanswered Question, In the Inn and In the Night.
James Earl Ray was an American fugitive who was convicted of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, Ray fled to London and was captured there. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea—thus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentence—and was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment.
Martin Luther King Jr., an American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m at age 39. He was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful. Ray died in prison in 1998.
Stravinsky Violin Concerto, originally titled Violin Concerto, is a neoclassical ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. Balanchine had previously choreographed another ballet to the concerto in 1941 for the Original Ballet Russe, titled Balustrade, though it was not revived following a few performances. He then reused the concerto for New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival in 1972, a tribute to the composer following his death. The ballet premiered on June 18, 1972, at the New York State Theater.
Duo Concertant is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Stravinsky's score of the same name. The ballet was created for New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival, a tribute to the composer a year after his death, and premiered on June 22, 1972, at the New York State Theater, danced by Kay Mazzo and Peter Martins.
Mary Ellen Moylan was an American ballet dancer. She was one of the first students of George Balanchine's School of American Ballet, and made her New York stage debut in 1942. She had danced with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Ballet Society, Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and on Broadway. She was best known for performing Balanchine's works, and was described as "the first great Balanchine dancer". She retired from performing in 1957.
La Valse is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Maurice Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales and La Valse. It premiered on February 20, 1951, at the City Center of Music and Drama, performed by the New York City Ballet. The ballet depicts dancers waltzing in a ballroom, during which a woman becomes attracted to a figure of death, and ultimately dies.
Divertimento No. 15 is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Mozart's eponymous music. The ballet was made for the New York City Ballet. Balanchine first choreographed the score in 1952, for a ballet titled Caracole. In 1956, he planned to revive Caracole for a celebration of Mozart's bicentenary but made a new ballet to the same music instead. Divertimento No. 15 premiered on May 31, 1956, at the American Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut.
