ABT Negro Unit’s Black Ritual and Valerie Black
The American Ballet Theatre’s all-Black Negro Unit, which was founded in 1940 as part of the Federal Theatre Project, included Valerie Black, along with Lawaune Kennard, Lavinia Williams, Anne Jones, Dorothy Williams, Elizabeth Thompson, Evelyn Pilcher, Edith Ross, 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.
Valerie Black and fellow Negro Unit dancers Dorothy Williams, Lavinia Williams, and Edith Ross performed with the American Negro Ballet (debuted 1937). Then, in 1941, Black danced with Mabel Hart in Aida with the National Negro Opera Company. In 1943, she performed in Carmen Jones with Dorothy Williams, Edith Ross, Edith Hurd, Mabel Anderson, and Evelyn Pilcher. Valerie Black and Mabel Hart also performed in Lysistrata (1946) together.
More about Valerie Black
Valerie Cavell Black, born in 1917 in Colon, Panama, attended Bryant High School and Hunter College in New York City. After seeing a call for dancers to join Eugene Von Grona’s American Negro Ballet, she performed with the company at their 1937 premiere at Lafayette Theatre, where she played the lead in Children of the Earth. At this performance, critics praised Black, Al Bledger, Lavinia Williams, and their fellow dancers. Black was also a member of Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre, performing in the 1940 premiere of Agnes de Mille’s Black Ritual.
Black was featured in several Broadway shows; she was in the original casts of The Hot Mikado (1939), Big White Fog (as Caroline, 1940), Carmen Jones (1943), Lysistrata (1946), and Our Lan’ (as Ellen, 1947). Black was cast as the understudy for the title role of Anna Lucasta; a year after the show opened, she took over the role when the original cast member left the production. The New York Age praised Black’s “superb acting, her charming personality, and her constant efforts in trying to do a better job every performance.”
She appeared in the film Beware! in 1946 and Aida with the National Negro Opera Company in 1941 as well as work on radio and in clubs.
Black passed away in 2003.
Sources:
Pioneers in Negro Concert Dance: 1931 to 1937, Free to Dance
Valerie Black, 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.
Inside the Playbill: Our Lan’, Playbill
Valerie Black, Native of Panama, Scores in “Anna Lucasta” Show, The New York Age Dec 1, 1945
The Daily News, Oct 28, 1945
Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins
Caprice Turchiano
Madeline Crawford
