In celebration of Black History Month, it's important to highlight the extraordinary contributions of Black dancers across generations. Their artistry, innovation, and resilience have paved the way for countless dancers and helped shape the landscape of ballet and modern dance today.
Virginia Johnson performing in George Balanchine’s “Agon” in 1974
Groundbreaking Figures in Ballet
Arthur Mitchell
Credited as the first African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB), Arthur Mitchell helped pave the way for black dancers in the ballet world. As a teenager, Mitchell was encouraged to apply to the High School of Performing Arts in New York City and upon his acceptance decided to train for a career in classical ballet. After graduating, he was awarded a scholarship to the School of American Ballet.
In 1955, after a brief stint on Broadway, Mitchell made his debut with NYCB, performing in George Balanchine’s Western Symphony. He went on to become a principal dancer with the company a year later. During his time with NYCB, he performed in all major ballets. The pas de deux in Balanchine’s famous ballet Agon, was choreographed specifically for Mitchell.
After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitchell returned to Harlem, determined to provide dance opportunities for children in the community. In 1969, at the height of the civil rights movement, Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook founded DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM.
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Where Are All the Black Swans?
Virginia Johnson
Virginia Johnson began her ballet training at the age of three and went on to study at The Washington School of Ballet, where she was the only African-American student at the time. She went on to study at New York University as a dance major. While in New York, she met legendary dancer Arthur Mitchell, who invited her to start a ballet company.
In 1969, Virginia left college and became one of the founding members of Dance Theatre of Harlem, the first-ever all-black ballet company. During her time there, she rose to the rank of principal and retired in 1997. She then went on to found Pointe Magazine after earning a communications degree from Fordham University, and served as editor-in-chief for 10 years. She returned to Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2009 to serve as their Artistic Director and remains in that position today. “This isn’t about shoes, this is about who belongs in ballet and who doesn’t,” said Virginia Johnson, artistic director of the Dance Theater of Harlem.
Raven Wilkinson
Raven Wilkinson fell in love with ballet at the age of five after seeing the iconic company, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, perform. Her mother decided to enroll her in ballet classes where she displayed a natural talent. At the age of nine, she attended the Swoboda School, which later became the Ballet Russe School and gave her the opportunity to audition for the dance troupe.
Despite her amazing talent, Wilkinson faced a number of barriers due to her race. It took Raven auditioning on three separate occasions before she was accepted on a six-week trial basis. She would go on to dance for the company for 6 seasons and was promoted to soloist. During her time with Ballet Russe, she faced a number of obstacles, especially when touring in the then segregated South.
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Exhausted from years of discrimination, where she was asked by producers to lie about her background, asked to wear white makeup, and even had individuals in the crowd shout racial slurs at her, she decided to leave the company in 1961. After taking a two-year break from dancing, she returned to the ballet world when Sylvester Campbell, a principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet, suggested she audition for the company. She was invited to join them as a second soloist and performance with them for seven years.
Janet Collins
Unlike most ballerinas, Janet Collins made a name for herself by starring in lead roles on Broadway. She began training in ballet when she was young and in 1932, at the age of 16, auditioned for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Similar to Raven Wilkinson’s experience, she would have been required to paint her face and skin white, so she decided not to join the company.
Instead she joined the Dunham Company, founded and directed by Katherine Dunham, who is considered to be the “matriarch of black dance.” After some time with Dunham’s company, Collins moved to New York where she performed on Broadway, including one notable role in Cole Porter’s production of Out of This World, which earned her the Donaldson Award for best dancer on Broadway in 1951. She went on to be the first Black ballerina to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Aida and Carmen.
Janet Collins was an accomplished dancer and choreographer who broke the color line with the Metropolitan Opera in 1951 when she made her debut as the leading dancer in the Met’s production of “Aïda.” She went on to become the first African American prima ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera.
Lauren Anderson
At the age of seven, Lauren Anderson began training at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. She was inspired after seeing a performance by Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she saw ballerinas that looked just like her. At the age of 18, Anderson joined Houston Ballet’s Corps de Ballet. In 1990, she made history and became the first African American principal dancer at that company.
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Her titular role in Ben Stevenson’s ballet Cleopatra, gained her international recognition and the reputation of being a powerhouse on stage. In 1990, she received the Special Jury Award at the International Ballet Competition, as well as the International Critics Award. Anderson retired in 2006, but continued working for Houston Ballet doing education and community engagement programing.
Debra Austin
Debra Austin made history in 1982 at Pennsylvania Ballet, when she became the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of principal at a major American ballet company. She began dancing at the age of eight, and four years later, earned a full scholarship to School of American Ballet in New York City. Four years after that, she was handpicked by George Balanchine to join New York City Ballet.
This was Austin’s first time making history as the African American woman to join the world-renowned company. As a dancer with NYCB, she danced many principal roles in both Balanchine and Jerome Robbins’ ballets, including one that was filmed for a PBS television special, Live From Lincoln Center. She then left New York City for Europe, where she danced with the Zurich Ballet and was promoted to the rank of soloist.
In 1982, Austin returned to the United States and joined 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. She retired in 1990 and now serves as Ballet Master of Carolina Ballet.
Other Notable Ballet Dancers
- Lydia Abarca: Became the first Black female ballerina on the cover of Dance Magazine in 1975.
- Erika Lambe: Became the first African American Sugarplum Fairy in Boston Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker in 2001.
- Chyrstyn Fentroy: Was promoted to principal dancer at Boston Ballet in 2022.
- Michaela DePrince: Born in Sierra Leone, she started her career in Dance Theatre of Harlem and later joined the Dutch National Ballet.
- Precious Adams: Trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and joined the English National Ballet in 2014.
- Anne Benna Sims: Was the first African-American danseuse at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and the first female African-American soloist in the company's history.
- Karen Brown: Danced for Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1973 to 1995.
- Alicia Graf Mack: Joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem and later the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Influential Figures in Modern Dance
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham is a legend in the dance world. Born in 1909, in Chicago, she had never thought about career in dance and had instead pursued teaching. She studied at the University of Chicago, where she was one of the first African American women to attend that school. She earned her bachelor, masters, and doctorate in anthropology.
Through her studies, she traveled to the Caribbean and did field world in Jamaica and Haiti. Dunham’s career in dance began 1928, when she started ballet training with Ludmilla Speranzeva, a former Russian dancer. A few years later, at the age of 21, Dunham founded Ballets Nègres, one of the first black ballet companies in the United States. After some success, she turned her focus to modern dance and in 1933, opened her first school, called the Negro Dance Group, where she taught young black dancers about their African heritage.
Dunham developed her own technique, a combination of modern dance with Afro-Carribbean and African-American influences. A year later, she was a guest artist with the Chicago Opera. In the 1940s, her dance company toured around the world. Her travels allowed her to author numerous articles, short stories, and books. In the 1965, Dunham accepted a position of Artist in Residence at Southern Illinois University. During her time there, she secured funding for the Performing Arts Training Center, with programming focused on the youth in the community. Later in her career she accepted a lot of choreographic commissions in the United States and Europe.
She was an advocate for racial equality and used her performances to highlight the discrimination by boycotting segregated venues in the United States. Throughout her life, she received countless awards, including the Presidential Medal of Arts, NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, Lincoln Academy Laureate, as well as an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey had a vision for his Company to be a mixed repertory company, particularly to give other Black choreographers a place to showcase their work. Mr. Ailey was dedicated to seeking out and commissioning rising talent to create work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and in doing so created one of the first successful repertory companies for modern dance.
"It was my idea, especially with the Black choreographers, to keep works in repertory," Mr. Ailey said. Part of his motivation was to dispel the notion that Black dance referred to a single sensibility, and to show that African American choreographers possessed a wealth of aesthetic and thematic diversity.
Katherine Dunham and Alvin Ailey
Talley Beatty
He then toured with the Katherine Dunham Dance Company for five years before starting his own career as a choreographer. Beatty’s works combine modern, ballet, and jazz movements to create a distinctive personal style. His ballet The Road of the Phoebe Snow (1959), set to music by Duke Ellington, is perhaps his most famous. As well as making his mark with contemporary works for ballet and modern dance companies-such as Dance Theatre of Harlem, Batsheva, and Ballet Hispanico-he was a renowned choreographer of Broadway musicals.
Donald McKayle
Before becoming a renowned choreographer, Donald McKayle began his dance education in his teens at the New Dance Group in New York City, where he learned from Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Pearl Primus, among others. He clearly had talent and performed with Martha Graham and José Limón, then was chosen by Jerome Robbins to be the dance captain for the original production of West Side Story.
Growing up in East Harlem, McKayle aspired to show the experiences of Black Americans on stage and create dances that confronted racial injustice. His work Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1959), which became part of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater repertory in 1972, depicts a Southern chain gang and the violence inflicted on Black men seeking freedom.
When most dance companies were still overwhelmingly white, McKayle insisted on working with a diverse cast of dancers. “My dance companies were always multiracial because of my deep belief that injustice, prejudice, discrimination and ethnic persecution stems from fear and ignorance of the other, the alien that looks different,” McKayle said. “All that matters to me beyond the technique of the dancer is his passion, expression, and his soulful approach.”
Pearl Primus
Like Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus was a dance anthropologist as well as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who became a leading figure in presenting dance of the African diaspora. Her works drew from her African heritage-her grandfather was a member of the Ashanti people in Ghana-and she traveled to Africa and the Caribbean to learn all of their traditional dance movements.
She was the first Black student at the New Dance Group in New York, a school that trained dancers with the moto “Dance is a weapon,” meaning that dance should be created with social and political awareness and not just art for art's sake. Among the many teachers she encountered there, Asadata Dafora was particularly influential with his performances of African ritual dances.
Inspired by Dafora, Primus choreographed her own staged versions of African ritual ceremonies, beginning with African Ceremonial (1944). She also spent time in the deep south immersing herself in the hardships of African American life at the time. She used her experiences to create Strange Fruit (1945), a meditation on lynching, and The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1944), inspired by Langston Hughes’ poetry.
Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Holder was a chameleon: an accomplished dancer, choreographer, actor, composer, designer, and painter. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1930 and by the age of seven had begun dancing for his brother’s dance troupe, the Holder Dance Company, eventually becoming the company’s director. He first came to New York in 1954 and joined the cast of House of Flowers just as Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade, whom he would eventually marry, had done the same year.
As a choreographer, Holder combined Afro-Caribbean dance with modern and ballet techniques. His work often took inspiration from historical figures, such as Haitian folk painter Hector Hypolite, whom Holder depicted in his ballet Prodigal Prince (1967) for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
George Faison
George Faison danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1967 to 1970, but first saw the Company perform when he was a student at Howard University. After leaving the Company, he formed his own, the George Faison Universal Dance Experience. To earn money, he choreographed music concerts, working with Roberta Flack and Stevie Wonder, along with Earth, Wind, and Fire. His greatest success came when he choreographed the musical The Wiz, winning a Tony for his choreography.
Eleo Pomare
Pomare was a divisive and radical figure in the world of modern dance-a Black choreographer who openly disdained the limitations of white critics and subverted expectations of what constituted Black dance. His work Missa Luba (1965) critiqued the colonizing missionaries in Africa and was danced to a Latin Catholic Mass performed by a Congolese Boys Choir. A year later he choreographed Blues for the Jungle (1966) as a direct response to the 1964 Harlem riots, depicting the drug-use and routine imprisonment that had become standard for Harlemites.
Pomare also created Dance-mobile in 1967, a traveling stage on the back of a flatbed truck that brought concert dance directly into Harlem and the Bronx, communities where concert dance wasn’t easily accessible.
Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones is one of America’s most prolific living choreographers. He is the cofounder of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and is now the Artistic Director of New York Live Arts. His work uses both dance and spoken word to confront urgent socio-political issues. One such piece, Still/Here (1995) caused controversy for having performers living with HIV openly address their status on stage.
Over his career, Jones has challenged such critics and revealed the systemic racism within the institutions of modern and postmodern dance. “Many white people do not know what it means to be a black body among white bodies,” he said during a conversation with Yvonne Rainer, a prolific postmodern choreographer in her own right. “That’s why I thought it was very important to take the Avant Garde that I respect, but to hold it up and say this too is a product of the same American system that gave you George Floyd.”
Ulysses Dove
Ulysses Dove choreographed works that played between form and expressive meaning. He started out as a dancer, the first and only one to dance in both Alvin Ailey's and Merce Cunningham's companies. In 1973, after seeing Mr. Ailey’s Love Songs, Dove knew he wanted to join Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. When he did, he quickly became one of the Company’s leading dancers.
At Mr. Ailey’s urging, Dove turned to making dances. In 1980, he created Inside, a solo for Judith Jamison which she described as “one of the hardest pieces I’ve ever done.” Shortly after, he left the Company to make work for New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and Dutch National Ballet. His dynamic works Bad Blood (1984), Vespers (1986), and Episodes (1987) became audience favorites in Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s repertory.
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s work embraces African forms of dance and music. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and trained with Joseph Stevenson, a former dancer with Katherine Dunham. When Zollar moved to New York City in 1980, she briefly danced with Dianne McIntyre’s company Sounds in Motion before founding her own group, Urban Bush Women in 1984.
“I was being buoyed by Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, the whole womanist movement, the black women writers, the Africanist writers,” Zollar said. “It made me want to claim this space of the pelvis even before I understood how or the ways that I would do that.” In 1988, Zollar choreographed Shelter, a reflection on the depravations of unhoused people to the drumming of Junior “Gabu” Wedderburn.
Camille A. Brown
Using forms of dance from the African diaspora, Camille A. Brown creates thought provoking work that is deeply rooted in ancestral and contemporary African American narratives. In 2006, she founded her own dance company, Camille A. Brown and Dancers, but didn’t stop there-going on to choreograph for other dance companies, Broadway, opera, film, and television. She directed and choreographed the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (2019), making her the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway show since Katherine Dunham in 1955. She also holds the claim of being the first Black artist to direct a mainstage production for the Metropolitan Opera with Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021).
Contemporary Black Dancers
Black girls rock everywhere we go, so it’s no surprise that the dance world is full of immensely talented Black women. Icons like Fatima Robinson, Laurieann Gibson, Tina Landen, Paula Abdul and the incomparable Debbie Allen are all names that have long been synonymous with greatness in the professional dance industry, but there are also a host of young ladies who are making their mark today.
Some names we’re skipping because you should absolutely know them by now - Misty Copeland, anyone? Alvin Ailey is an obvious answer. Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson of Complexions Contemporary Ballet - classic. And if you don’t know the names Debbie Allen or Camille A. Brown - start your research there.
Here are some contemporary Black dancers who inspire:
- Ebony Williams: An alumna of Boston Ballet School and previously a company member of the now folded and greatly missed Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Williams has conquered everything over her career - classical, contemporary, funk, heels, hip hop.
- Maxfield Haynes: Made a name for themselves while dancing at Complexions, have continued their career with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and are currently in residency at the Metropolitan Opera.
- Chloe Arnold: Dancer and Emmy nominated choreographer from her tap band Syncopated Ladies.
- Taja Riley: An artist activist, well known for her advocacy in the 2022 Super Bowl case.
Ebony Williams
A Diverse Spectrum of Dance
The contributions of African American dancers span various genres, enriching the dance landscape with their unique perspectives and talents.
Social Dance
[List of Social Dancers]
