Evelyn Crittenden (née Pilcher)

Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre
American Negro Ballet Company
Katherine Dunham Company (1940-1943)

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Evelyn Pilcher, born in 1922, was a member of the Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre. She was a part of the original casts of Agnes de Mille’s Black Ritual and the Broadway shows Carmen Jones (1943) and Cabin in the Sky (1940), which was staged and choreographed by George Balanchine. In the 1950s, Pilcher also performed with La Verne French as “Velyn and La Verne.”

Pilcher passed away in 2013.

Sources:

Black Ritual (Obeah), American Ballet Theatre
Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War by Carol J. Oja
Evelyn Pilcher, Playbill
Maher, Erin K. “Ballet, Race, and Agnes de Mille’s Black Ritual.” The Musical Quarterly, vol. 97, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 390-428.