ABT Negro Unit’s Black Ritual and Dorothy Williams

The American Ballet Theatre’s all-Black Negro Unit, which was founded in 1940 as part of the Federal Theatre Project, included Dorothy Williams, along with Lawaune Kennard, Lavinia Williams, Anne Jones, Elizabeth Thompson, Evelyn Pilcher, Edith Ross, Valerie Black, Leonore “Azelean” Cox, Edith Hurd, Mabel Hart, Maudelle Bass, Clementine Collinwood, Carole Ash, Bernice Willis, and Muriel Cook. The Negro Unit only performed one ballet during its existence—Black Ritual or Obeah, which was choreographed by Agnes de Mille and premiered in 1940.

Williams had previously danced with fellow Negro Unit members Valerie Black, Lavinia Williams, and Edith Ross in the American Negro Ballet, which debuted in 1937 and disbanded in 1940. Additionally, Dorothy Williams, Edith Ross, Valerie Black, Edith Hurd, Mabel Anderson, and Evelyn Pilcher of the Negro Unit performed together in the Broadway production of Carmen Jones in 1943.

 

 

 

More about Dorothy Williams

Dorothy Williams was born in 1916. In 1936, Williams performed in the Federal Theatre Project’s production of Sweet Land. Williams also performed in the Broadway productions of Blackbirds of 1928; Shuffle Along (1932); and Run, Little Chillun (1943).

 

Sources:

Black Ritual (Obeah), American Ballet Theatre
Muriel Cook, Dorothy Williams, Maudell Bass [sic], and Lewanne Kennaro [sic] in “Black Ritual”, New York Public Library
Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War by Carol J. Oja
Dorothy Williams, Playbill
“Black Ritual” Ballet by Agnes de Mille for the Ballet Theatre, Museum of the City of New York
Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins
Maher, Erin K. “Ballet, Race, and Agnes de Mille’s Black Ritual.” The Musical Quarterly, vol. 97, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 390-428.

McClain Groff

 

 

Madeline Crawford