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Debra Austin. 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.
In 2015, Misty Copeland made history when she became the first Black principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history and the first Black ballerina ever to perform in “Swan ...
Jean-Marie Durand. . . (m. 1955, divorced) . Miles Davis. . (m. 1959–1968) . Frances Taylor Davis (September 28, 1929 – November 17, 2018) was an American dancer and actress who was a member of the Katherine Dunham Company, and the first African American ballerina to perform with the Paris Opera Ballet. [1]
Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (later Ailey School) as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the ...
Occupation. Ballerina. Anne Raven Wilkinson (February 2, 1935 – December 17, 2018) 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.
Anne Benna Sims was the first African-American danseuse at American Ballet Theatre [1] and the first African-American soloist in the company's history. [2] 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 ...
Notable Black ballerinas. Aesha Ash is the first Black woman on the School of American Ballet 's permanent faculty. [11] Ash was a student at SAB and progressed into its affiliated company, the New York City Ballet, in 1996. [11] She left NYCB and joined Maurice Béjart 's company in Switzerland before returning to the United States and dancing ...
Lauren Anderson (born February 19, 1965) is an American ballet dancer and a former principal dancer with the Houston Ballet. In 1990, she was one of the first African-American ballerinas to become a principal for a major dance company, an important milestone in American ballet. [1][2] She appeared in many ballets such as Don Quixote, Cleopatra ...