Sandra Fortune Green

Capital Ballet Company: Principal
Royal Winnipeg Ballet: Guest
Washington Ballet: Guest
Santo Domingo Ballet: Guest

Prima ballerina Sandra Fortune-Green was born on March 2, 1951 in Washington DC to Elizabeth and Raymond Fortune. Fortune-Green began her dance career at age ten, enrolling in the renowned Jones-Haywood School of Dance under the instruction of Doris Jones and Claire Haywood. Fortune-Green flourished at the school, eventually becoming a principal dancer for the Capitol Ballet Company.

After Fortune-Green graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1968, she pursued her dance studies in New York at the School of American Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Joffrey Ballet before returning back to Washington DC to attend Howard University. In 1972, Fortune-Green left Howard to begin training for the prestigious Second International Ballet Competition in Moscow, Russia. She was the only African American to ever compete in this competition. Fortune-Green was eliminated after the second round of judging, but finished twenty-sixth out of the 126 dancers participating. After returning to the United States, Fortune-Green married her high school sweetheart, Joseph Green, on New Year’s Eve of 1975.

In 1987, Fortune-Green earned a Washington DC Mayor’s Arts Award presented by Marion Barry, and in 1994, she was invited to join the faculty at Howard University’s dance department, where she taught ballet technique classes. Fortune Green is also on the dance faculty at the Duke Ellington School of Arts, a position she has held for more than thirty years. In 2007, Fortune-Green became the new owner of the Jones-Haywood School of Dance, the same studio she attended throughout her adolescence and early adulthood. Years earlier, Jones and Haywood stated in a 1974 interview that they hoped Fortune-Green would continue their legacy.

Fortune-Green has been widely recognized for her efforts within the performing arts, including a designation as an outstanding alumnus from Howard University. Fortune-Green was also featured in two major publications—Black Dance from 1619 to Today by Lynne Fauley Emery and The Black Tradition in Dance by Richard Long.

Source:

Sandra Fortune-Green, The History Makers

Capitol Ballet and Sandra Fortune Green

During her time at Capitol Ballet, Sandra Fortune-Green performed numerous lead roles with the company. Her repertoire included Doris Jones’ Pocahontas (in the title role), Color, Ebony Concerto, and Rhapsody in Blue; Joyce Trisler’s Dance for Six; Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote Pas de Deux; and Norbert Vesak’s Belong. It was during this time that Fortune-Green participated in the International Ballet Competition in Moscow, first presenting her dancing to First Lady Pat Nixon in April 1973 before competing in June 1973.

Sources:

Pat Praises Black Girl In Ballet, Florida Today
A new Pavlova emerges, The Province
The Washington Post, 30th May 1968, p. C6
The Washington Post, 30th June 1969, p. B8

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