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WHAT’S MISSING? A STUDY AND DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR BLACK BALLERINA

What’s Missing? The documentary film BLACK BALLERINA tells the story of several black women from different generations who fell in love with ballet. Six decades ago, Joan Myers Brown, Delores Browne, and Raven Wilkinson faced racism in their pursuit of careers in classical ballet. Today, young dancers of color continue to face formidable challenges breaking into the overwhelmingly white world of ballet. Moving back and forth in time, this lyrical, character-driven film presents a fresh discussion about race, inclusion, and opportunity across all sectors of American society.

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WHAT IS CLASSICAL BALLET?

What is known today as classical ballet began in the “...When a disgruntled military attempted at royal courts of France and developed through the noble houses one point to install a monarchy with George of the Italian Renaissance. In the 15th century, noblemen and Washington as king, he fiercely resisted.” women attended lavish dinners, especially wedding celebrations, Wilf Hey, “George Washington: The Man where dancing and music created elaborate spectacles. Dancing Who Would Not Be King,” 2000 masters taught the steps to the nobility and the court participated in the performances. In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici— an Italian noblewoman, wife of King Henry II of France, and a great patron of the arts—began to fund ballet in the French court. A century later, King Louis XIV helped to popularize and standardize the new art form. A devoted dancer, he performed many roles. His love of ballet led to its development from a party activity for members of the court to becoming a practice requiring disciplined professional training. The establishment of ballet as an institutional practice in the began quite slowly, possibly because the foundations of American political and historical culture espoused democracy and other non-hierarchical ideals. As a result, in the 1700 and 1800s, ballet was only imported from Europe to the United States. Americans were not trained as dancers, dance teachers, or choreographers. However, following the upheavals of the Russian Revolution (1917) and World War I (1914-1918), many European ballet artists immigrated to the United States. By the 1930s, ballet artists in , Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco were launching ballet academies and companies to lay the foundation for American classical ballet.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 What contrasts do you see between the customs of the European monarchies and the democratic ideals present at the founding of the United States that would make a difference in the early American history of ballet?

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THE COLOR LINE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem By the twentieth century in the United of the color line.” States, racist Jim Crow laws in the south and racial

W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks, 1903. segregation in nearly every other state disallowed from fully participating in the burgeoning American concert ballet world. The idea of black dancers performing classical ballet was considered implausible, due to ballet’s aristocratic European roots and to the oppressive socio-political conditions for many African Americans. It was a common racialized idea at the time that people of African descent were physically and intellectually inferior to people of European descent. This notion was held by many mainstream artists and thinkers. These perceptions about black dancers “(The) idea of a ballet for Negroes is all developed from stereotypes that came to exist during wrong…It has never been done…it isn’t physiologically in the picture.” and after enslavement (1619-1865). Stereotypes about black women’s bodies, specifically, the “Mammy”— Agnes De Mille, noted ballet where women were depicted as head-rag adorned, dark choreographer, 1929. From Mark Turbyfill, “The Untold Story of the Dunham/Turbyfill skinned, mouthy, and full-figured—and the Sapphire Alliance.” Dance Magazine, 1983. stereotype—of black women who were aggressive, hypersexualized, and exotic seductresses—were common. Both stereotypes cast the black woman as “other” or in negative contrast to white women, though white women were also burdened with stereotypes. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the most significant stereotype for white women was the “cult of true womanhood,” in which women’s purity, virtue, gentility, and domesticity were of the greatest importance. Presently, historical female gender stereotypes confine both black and white women, but white women’s historical stereotypes enhance their place in the ballet world, where the ballerina is treasured as pure and gentle. In contrast, the stereotypes promulgated for black females are antithetical to historical notions of the ballerina. Though many of these ideas have been refuted theoretically, and even practically, by the accomplishments of many black women, it has taken many years for them to make minor inroads in the classical ballet world in the United States.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 How do these old stereotypes still affect women? Which stereotypes do you hear applied to women currently?  Commonly held stereotypes about black women worked against their acceptance in the ballet world. Do you think that these stereotypical images were the main factor in the exclusion of black women from ballet? Can you name other factors that also may have contributed to that exclusion?  Do you think stereotypes about black men work for or against their success as ballet dancers?

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HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF BLACK CONTRIBUTIONS TO CLASSICAL BALLET IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA This brief historical overview describes major trends and events in the history of African American ballet dancers and introduces ideas that provide lesser-known information, to reveal reasons for the lack of diversity in ballet in the United States, while providing insights into practices that can bring change. During ballet’s rise in the United States in the 1930s there were also African Americans who were captivated by ballet. Dance schools that offered ballet, some with aspirations of creating professional performing companies, were established in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as well as other cities with significant African American populations. In chronological order, in 1919, Ella Gordon founded her school of dance in , including ballet in the curriculum. Mabel Jones Freeman, who spent time in Europe studying ballet, opened a school in Washington, D.C., in 1926. Also in that year, Essie Marie Dorsey opened a school in Philadelphia. Dorsey had studied in New York with noted teachers, including former Bolshoi Ballet dancer Mikhail Mordkin. Katherine Dunham, an African American concert dance pioneer, tried to establish a ballet school and company in Chicago, with Mark Turbyfill, a former dancer with Adolph Bolm Ballet, in 1929. These were all prior to the Great Depression (1929-1939) and World War II (1939-1945), which both significantly slowed the growth of mainstream American concert ballet. Though Dunham’s attempt did not succeed in Chicago, later in the 1940s, the Dunham School of Dance and Theatre in offered ballet classes at many levels as part of a comprehensive dance education. Both Todd Bolender and Karel Shook, ballet notables, taught black ballet dancers at the Dunham School. These examples of early black dance schools not only demonstrate that African Americans were studying ballet “off the radar” of the segregated American ballet world, but also that they were beginning a lineage of dance schools, academies, and teachers that used systematic ballet technique and supportive mentoring for their African American students. Marion Cuyjet, who founded The Judimar School in Philadelphia in 1948, exemplified the excellence of the training black students received. The Judimar curriculum included dance history and the use of the Vaganova Ballet Curriculum to comprehensively train her students. Annually, Judimar put on full-length ballet productions rather than dance recitals. When exceptionally gifted students presented themselves, Cuyjet and other academy directors sent them to the top (white) ballet training academies to complete their studies in ballet. Before the 1960s and 1970s several students were sent to the School of American Ballet (established in 1934)—the school of The , one of the top ballet companies in the United States. One of the featured ballerinas of this film, Delores Browne, was sent to The School of American Ballet to further her training. However, the problem remained: Where would a black ballet dancer perform once trained? No white company would hire a black female ballet dancer.

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION  Identify some ways that Jim Crow segregation impacted the American ballet world.  It is often said that it takes ten years to fully develop a ballet dancing body and technique. Given that, how did racism impede full development for African American dancers?  What was it about metropolitan areas that created favorable conditions for the founding of dance schools for black students? Do these favorable conditions still exist?  Imagine that you are a technically trained black ballet dancer like Delores Browne, who was sent to study at School of American Ballet in the late 1950s. How would you feel? What would be your biggest fear? Your greatest hope?

Janet Collins, the first African American ballet dancer to perform at the , is an example of a black ballerina who could not get work. In 1933, when Collins was sixteen, she auditioned for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a touring company. Léonide Massine, the director, thought she was a strong dancer but said, “In order to…take you into the company I would have to paint you white.” She of course declined his offer. (Lewin, 21-22) The prominence of ballet was firmly established in the 1950s with New York City Ballet, , and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, all based in NYC, as the top companies in the country. The Civil Rights Movement (traditionally dated 1954-1968) in the United States intensified also in this decade. Collins was hired by the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in 1951; was hired by New York City Ballet in 1955; and Raven Wilkinson, one of the black ballerinas featured in the documentary, was hired by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. “Delores Browne as the Symbol of Gras, a There were also efforts to launch ballet companies bird, is reminiscent of with her with black ballet dancers to provide more opportunities than daring movements.” those offered by the limited to non-existent, token status. Aubrey Hitchins from England founded the Negro Dance Our Ballet Critic (no name given), The Scotsman, 1957. Theatre in1954. This company of all-male dancers performed for two years, with its most significant performances at Jacob’s Pillow. They received guarded reviews and disbanded due to lack of funds. Notably there were two more successful attempts to present African American ballet dancers—the First Negro Classica Ballet and Les Ballets Negres. Another Brit, Joseph Rickard, established the First Negro Classic Ballet in Los Angeles in 1949. Former Bolshoi Ballet member Maria Nevelska and African American dancer Ward Flemyng established Les Ballets Negres in 1954 in New York City. The two companies merged to form the New York Negro Ballet in 1956. For the first two years this merged company’s future looked promising. The New York Negro Ballet was a union company that worked for several months to build a repertoire of ballet and contemporary works. The company of twenty-one dancers had a successful tour of Britain for several months and was also scheduled to go to France. However, this part of the tour was cancelled because the country was experiencing political unrest. Then suddenly the New York Negro Ballet’s London rehearsals of Coppélia were cut short and they returned to New York City. Sadly, their patroness Lucy Thorndike died and left no provisions for the company in her will. The New York Negro Ballet did a few performances over the next few years, under the name Ballet Americana, but by 1960, the company had disbanded.

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The ballet world continued to expand with establishment of numerous regional companies in various states, as the Civil Rights Movement activities broadened in the 1960s. The Capital Ballet, an African American regional company, was founded in Washington, D.C., by Doris Jones and Claire Haywood in 1961. However, there were still many signs that things had not significantly changed. Raven Wilkinson was sent home from touring the southern states with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo because the company feared for her safety under strict segregation laws. Thus, she resigned from the company in early 1961. Arthur Mitchell asserts that he did not experience overt racism at New York City Ballet, but he was type-cast. Janet Collins and Delores Browne were no longer performing in New York; they could not find any work as performers. Other African Americans—John Jones with Ballets: USA and the and Keith Lee with American Ballet Theatre (he was hired in1969, and later became a soloist)—were performing, but black women were not working.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 Name some important historical events in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. How do you imagine that these historical landmarks may have provided a context for the success of a few black ballet dancers of the period?  The Montgomery, Alabama bus boycotts created the conditions for black bodies moving in new ways through public spaces. Imagine that you are a ballet choreographer in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. How would you begin to choreograph a ballet about the bus boycott?  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a significant victory of the Civil Rights Movement addressing employment6 practices in the United States. What difference should it have made to professional ballet companies?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it unlawful for an employer to "fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges or employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." This potentially powerful law has been slow to make an impact on the professional ballet world. The nation as a whole experienced a tremendous blow when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Arthur Mitchell, by then a principal dancer at New York City Ballet, was inspired to start a school and company, and was born. He wanted to create opportunities for African Americans to study and perform ballet as his contribution to moving forward the quest for equality for black people embodied in the Civil Rights Movement. Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) achieved this goal magnificently, and its accomplishments are Nelson Mandela reasoned with Arthur Mitchell that Dance Theatre of Harlem should come to perform legendary. The repertoire included the work of George in South Africa, saying, “because Arthur, you’ve Balanchine and other neoclassical works like ’ proven that any child, given the opportunity, will Firebird; classical works such as the Second Act of Swan excel.” Lake; ballets from the repertoire of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, such as Scheherazade and Les Noces; Victoria Hutter, “Arthur Mitchell”, 2016 Americana ballets like Agnes De Mille’s Fall River Legend; and various contemporary works, including African-based ballets such as Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla. DTH grew to be an international ballet company. Momentous performances included a command performance for the Queen of England, numerous performances at the White House, at New York’s City Center, at the Kennedy Center, and the London Coliseum. Additionally, DTH performed at the Closing Ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and for Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1992. DTH made network history with its nationally televised Creole , filmed in Denmark, which was awarded the 1984 Sir Laurence Olivier Award for its excellence. The company’s black ballerinas included Lydia Abarca, Stephanie Dabney, , Christina Johnson, Lorraine Graves, Charmaine Hunter, Tai Jimenez, Andrea Long, Alicia Graff, and Virginia Johnson (the company’s current artistic director). All of these are black ballerinas whose artistic excellence and contribution to the dance world in the United States have been profound, yet marginalized. There was an all-around dance boom in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to the growth and success of DTH, there were other achievements of note. Anna Benna Sims became the first African American female to be hired by American Ballet Theatre in 1978. Ronald Perry, an alumnus of DTH, became a soloist with American Ballet Theatre in 1980. In 1981, , also a DTH alumnus, joined New York City Ballet. became the first African American female to be hired as a principal dancer in a white ballet company, the , from 1982-1990, after being in the corps de ballet of the New York City Ballet for ten years. began her career at the Ballet in 1983, where she became the first African American to work her way up from the corps de ballet to principal dancer in a white ballet company in 1990.

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Other black ballet dancers from this era who achieved success include Pierre Lockett from Joffrey Ballet, Albert Evans, Aesha Ashe, Cynthia Lochard, Myrna Kamara at New York City Ballet, and others. One very important event occurred when the Alonso King Lines Ballet was founded in 1982. This San Francisco based company reflected the “gorgeous mosaic” that is the population of the United States and had dancers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The achievements of these dancers offered evidence that black dancers could be trained, gifted, and make significant contributions, despite racist perceptions. Throughout the 1990s this trend of black dancers joining companies continued; some of these dancers were promoted out of the corps de ballet, to soloist or principal position and roles, with accompanying salaries. However, despite Alonso King’s innovative mission, ballet in the United States still did not reflect the diversity of the nation. A 2001 survey seeking to find black female principal dancers noted that Lauren Anderson of the represented the singular African American Prima Ballerina. The Houston Ballet’s artistic director, Ben Stevenson, a native of England, hired Anderson. This is another of the oft-replayed examples of European-born ballet directors and choreographers being more supportive and accepting of the black ballet dancer than US directors were. Although not without challenges, African Americans have been able to find work in ballet companies in Europe more often than in the United States. Examples of noted careers in Europe include Raven Wilkinson, who became a soloist, and Sylvester Campbell, who became a principal, for the ; Christopher Boatwright, who danced with the Stuttgart Ballet; and Francesca Harper (former DTH dancer), who performed with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt from 1991-1999, becoming a principal dancer in 1994.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 In this film, and in our discussion, there are examples of European teachers, choreographers, and artistic directors working with black dancers. Why do you think they were more willing to do so than their peers from the United States?

To speak to this lack, in 1997, NY Times dance critic Jennifer Dunning reported that only 23 black dancers, 4.6%, out of 495 ballet dancers in 10 companies were black. She called it an “Uphill Path to .” In 2010, in 20 ballet companies surveyed on the internet, of 846 dancers total, only 26 were African American, 18 men and 8 women, a little over 3%. In 2013, the survey yielded similar numbers: of 21

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companies, all founded before 1990 with at least 20 dancers, totaling 806 dancers, 26 dancers were black, 19 of them men—1 principal and 4 soloists; the rest were corps dancers. At that time was a soloist for American Ballet and, 6 other female corps dancers completed the group. Only 2.5% of ballet dancers in the United States were black. Misty Copeland became a principal dancer in 2015, fifteen years after she began with the company. “The eye tends to In 2000, former Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerina Karen Brown accommodate such became the artistic director of the Oakland Ballet, a significant differences more easily it achievement for an African American woman. (The company disbanded seems [black ballet dancers on stage] than the mind shifts in 2006.) Of course, other ballet dancers of color and African American from historical and cultural men also have issues, but none of those groups are more ostracized assumptions.” than black women, as the statistics illustrate. Jennifer Dunning, New In 2004 the Dance Theatre of Harlem went on an extended York Times dance critic, 1997. hiatus due to financial problems. At that time more African Americans who had been trained from ballet academies, both black and white, as well as from Dance Theatre of Harlem’s school, were available. In addition, DTH’s dancers were now unemployed. Yet even with the numerous black dancers available, as the statistics revealed, the number of black ballet dancers in white companies declined. Over the years, some have said that Dance Theatre of Harlem’s existence kept ballet from diversifying, that if the company did not exist, white companies would have been more inclined to hire black ballet dancers. That argument now seems flawed. As diversity becomes a buzzword and a mandate in the United States in the new millennium, why are less and less black ballet dancers—especially black women dancers, getting hired?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 As this documentary shows, race plays a critical role in the performing arts. In addition, it must be noted that money is a critical factor in the business of the performing arts, and its lack can cause companies to fold. Which do you think is more important, race or money? What particular challenges do you think predominantly black companies like DTH might face?  Dance Theatre of Harlem was born in a similar time as today, where black people and their allies were publicly protesting for racial justice. The Civil Rights Movement was a communal vehicle for public protest, the current #BlackLivesMatter movement is a movement for social and racial justice. Do you see any similarities between these two historical eras? What do you think about the hashtag #BlackBeautyMatters? Do you think black ballerinas matter?

At the beginning of the film, the question of “what is missing” was asked. However, a more precise question might be, what will happen to American ballet if it does not look for the missing element? Will American ballet survive as the United States becomes a more diverse nation? Now the challenge has been presented: What needs to happen? And how will you participate?

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Cited and Selected Sources

Amberg, George. Ballet in America: The Emergence of an American Art. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949; reprint New York: Da Capo Press, 1983.

Anderson, Jack. Ballet and Modern Dance: A Concise History. 2nd ed. A Dance Horizon Book. Hightstown, NJ: Princeton Book Company, Publishers, 1992.

Banes, Sally. Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Collins, Karyn D. “Does Classicism Have a Color? Even Today, Black Ballet Dancers Face Painful Hurdles –and Surmount Them.” Dance Magazine, 1 June 2005.

Deans, Joselli Audain. Black Ballerinas Dancing on the Edge: An Analysis of the Cultural Politics in Delores Browne's and Raven Wilkinson's Careers, 1954-1985. Ed.D. Diss. Temple University, Philadelphia, 2001.

_____. "The Marginalization of African American Ballet Dancers as Reflected in Dance Critical Literature: 1980-1990." In Dancing in the Millennium: An International Conference Proceedings Held in Washington, D.C., 9-23 July 2000. Compiled by Juliette Crone-Willis, 124-129. Washington, DC: Dancing in the Millennium, 2000.

DeFrantz, Thomas. Dancing Many Drums. Ed. Thomas F. De Frantz. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folks, Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1903.

Dunning, Jennifer. “An Uphill Path to 'Swan Lake.'" The New York Times, 24 February 1997, 1 (C) and 12 (C).

Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. The Black Dancing Body. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

_____. Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Green, Jonnie. “Classic Black.” Dance Magazine, February 1997, 86-91.

Hamilton, William M.D. “The Best Body for Ballet.” Dance Magazine, October 1982, 82-83.

Hey, Wilf. “George Washington: The Man Who Would Not Be King.” Vision, Spring 2000, http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/biography-george-washington/587.aspx hooks, bell. Ain't I A Woman. Boston: South End Press, 1981.

Howard, Theresa. The Misty-rious Case of the Vanishing Ballerinas of Color: Where Have All The Others Gone? 23 April 2015, http://www.mybodymyimage.com/the-misty-rious-case-of-the-vanishing- ballerinas-of-color-where-have-all-the-others-gone.

Hutter, Victoria. “Arthur Mitchell: Giving Back to the Community.” NEA Arts Magazine, no.1 (2016), https://www.arts.gov/NEARTS/2016v1-telling-all-our-stories-arts-and-diversity/arthur-mitchell

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Johnson, Virginia. “Building Diversity in Ballet: Black Swans Are Still Too Rare.” From the Green Room: Dance/USA’s e – Journal, 2010, http://www2.danceusa.org/ejournal/post.cfm?entry=building-diversity-in ballet-black-swans-are-still-too- rare _____. Do Black Dancers Have a Place In Ballet? We Say, Yes. HuffPost Arts and Culture, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/virginia-johnson/black-dancers-ballet_b_1989383.html

Kourlas, Gia. “Where Are All the Black Swans?” The New York Times, 6 May 2007.

Morton, Patricia. Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991.

Our Ballet Critic, "Colorful Ballet: Negro Dancers Provide Brilliant Spectacle," The Scotsman, 24 September 1957.

Slater, Jack. “They Told Us Our Bodies Were Wrong for Ballet.” The New York Times, 27 April 1975, 1 and 11.

Turbyfill, Mark. “The Untold Story of the Dunham/Turbyfill Alliance: Part Two: Excerpts from the Diary,” Dance Magazine, December 1983, 94, 96, 98.

Yael Tamar Lewin. Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2013.

White, Deborah Gray. Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slave in the Plantation South. Revised. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999.

White-Dixon, Melanye. Marion D. Cuyjet and Her Judimar School of Dance. Edward Mellen Press, 2011.

Films, Videotapes, Archival Materials and Websites

Blackside, Inc. "The Dream Keepers." In I'll Make Me A World Series. Blackside, Inc. 60 min. 1998-2000. Videocassette.

Free to Dance, Directed by Madison Davis Lacy. PBS, 2000. DVD.

Green, Jonnie, project director. Classic Black, videotapes series of Symposia presented at Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York, NY, February 12 and February 26, 1996. Videocassettes.

International Association of Blacks in Dance. http://www.iabdassociation.org

MOBBallet.org: Curating Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet. Editor Theresa Ruth Howard. http://mobballet.org/index.php/about-us/

Written by Joselli Audain Deans Ed. D. and P. Kimberleigh Jordan, Ph. D. Graphic Design by G. R. Designs © 2016

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