Ronald Platts studied at the Judimar School of Dance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1950s. He attended concurrently with notable alumni Charles Moore, Delores Browne, John Jones, Ernest Parham, and Arthur Hall.

Source:

Marion Cuyjet: Black Ballet Pioneer

More about Ronald Platts

One of Ronald Platts’ early performances was in an Alvin Ailey and Ernest Parham recital on March 30, 1958 at the 92nd St Y. Many other notable dancers were featured in this performance, including Georgia Collins, Charles Moore, Delores Browne, Charles Neal, and John Jones.

Platts danced with Ward Fleming’s New York Negro Ballet, which was known as Ballet Americana at the time Platts was a member, around 1959.

Platts danced as a part of The Merry-Go-Rounders Company during the 1959 season at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. A photo of Platts and fellow company members rehearsing was featured as one of “The Week’s Best Photos” in a 1959 issue of Jet Magazine (see left).

He also performed in the 1961 Broadway production Kwamina as a Policeman and dancer. The show featured other well-known dancers such as Louis Johnson, Doris de Mendez, Charles Moore, and Glory Van Scott. That same year, Platts appeared as a Jubilee Dancer in an off-Broadway production of Show Boat (also alongside Glory Van Scott as well as fellow New York Negro Ballet dancer Bernard Johnson).

Sources:

Marion Cuyjet: Black Ballet Pioneer
Ronald Platts, Playbill
The Week’s Best Photos, Jet Magazine, September 3, 1959
Converging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y, by Naomi M. Jackson
Ronald Platts, Jacob’s Pillow Archive

See also:

Which was the First?—a historical essay on the first Black Dance Company in the USA
1957: Ward Fleming found Ballet Americana/New York Negro Ballet

 

Written by Mad Crawford