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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.
Janet Collins receiving a kiss from ballet master Zachary Solov after her performance in Aida, Nov. 1951. She also performed in Aida, Carmen, and was the first Black ballerina to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in 1951 [9] which she joined the next year and performed at until 1955. [10]
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 ...
The only male African American in the company during her career, Danny Tidwell, left in 2005. [6] [85] In an international ballet community with a lack of diversity, [86] [87] she was so unusual as an African American ballerina that she endured cultural isolation. [88] She has been described in the press as the Jackie Robinson of classical ...
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 .
Although Black women continue to be underrepresented in ballet, they have made steady progress in integrating the field. Jim Crow laws, which persisted until the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meant that racial segregation was a pervasive feature of American life throughout the first half of the 20th century. [5]
The earliest known, full-length opera composed by a Black American, “Morgiane,” will premiere this week in Washington, DC, Maryland and New York more than century after it was completed.
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.