ABT Negro Unit’s Black Ritual and Elizabeth Thompson
The American Ballet Theatre’s all-Black Negro Unit, which was founded in 1940 as part of the Federal Theatre Project, included Elizabeth Thompson, along with Lawaune Kennard, Lavinia Williams, Anne Jones, Dorothy Williams, 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.
Elizabeth Johnson was an original member of Ballet Americana/New York Negro Ballet (1957) along with Cleo Quitman, who later performed in Agnes de Mille’s The Four Marys in 1964-1965.
More about Elizabeth Thompson
Elizabeth Ann (Betty Ann) Thompson was born in Harlem in 1936 and began dancing at 12 years old in her church musical theater group. A childhood friend, Thelma Hill, guided Thompson downtown to take classes with Maria Nevelska. Ms. Thompson attended the Juilliard School but would leave to pursue a professional career performing with Les Ballets Negres, the predecessor to the New York Negro Ballet.
After the company disbanded, Thompson was employed as a secretary and performed part-time with Geoffrey Holder and Louis Johnson. In 1966, the Radio City Ballet Company hired Thompson—a pioneer woman of color in a predominantly white corps; she performed with the company full-time until the company’s demise in 1975 and part-time until 1979. She also performed with Walter Nix.
Thompson taught dance at Dance Theater of Harlem and was the dance mistress at Ballet Hispanico for six years, as well as teaching in France. She later shared her passion for dance as a teacher of young ballerinas at the Marie Wildey School of Dance in East Orange, NJ.
She passed away at age 76 in March 2012.
Sources:
Joselli Audain Deans: Elizabeth Thompson, telephone interview by author, December 15, 2000, Philadelphia, PA, tape recording.
Elizabeth Hubbard, 76, Dancer and Beloved Gardener, AMNY
Black Swans Shattering the Glass Ceiling, La’Toya Princess Jackson
McClain Groff
