From Broadway to Ballet and Black and Georgia Collins
Georgia Collins performed in The Road of the Phoebe Snow at Jacob’s Pillow in 1960 along with Talley Beatty. Collins was able to find opportunities to dance on Broadway as well as in operas in the 1960s but was also able to train and perform with Ward Fleming’s New York Negro Ballet and New York’s Ballet Theatre.
Collins performed in other performances with other companies, including one with a group brought together by Louis Johnson. She also performed in a television special and other opera performances.
Sources:
“Dance of the African Diaspora: Talley Beatty” by John Perpener, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive
The Road of the Phoebe Snow Program: Georgia Collins (Dancer), Jacob’s Pillow Archives
More about Georgia Collins
Harlem native Georgia Collins, having come from a family that encouraged her interest in the arts, attended the High School of Performing Arts. From 1951 to 1957, Collins studied at the School of American Ballet in New York, NY along with Barbara Wright and Michaelyn Jackson. In addition to her dance education, she earned a degree in philosophy from Long Island University.
Collins became a member of the New York Negro Ballet and toured with the company throughout England, Wales, and Scotland. Collins was said to be a “sensuous dancer.” She later performed with Katherine Dunham’s company and toured with an early version of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. On March 30, 1958, she performed alongside dancers like Nat Horne, John Jones, Delores Browne, Ronald Platts, Talley Beatty, Charles Moore, and many more in an Alvin Ailey and Ernest Parham recital at the 92nd Street Y. Collins appeared at Jacob’s Pillow with a group led by Talley Beatty in 1960 in a piece called The Road of the Phoebe Show, choreographed by Beatty. She was in the original 1962 cast of Ailey’s Been Here and Gone and also performed in Louis Johnson‘s company. Collins was cast in Fellini’s 8 1/2* and featured on the Harry Belafonte television special Revlon Comedy Hour. Her work in opera included performances with Scaron Opera Company and the “New York opera company,” though it is not certain to which company this is referring.
In a 2018 Ballet Review interview, Louis Johnson listed Collins as one of the remarkable Black dancers who preceded those of Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Sources:
Nicole Toney
