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Timeline
1846 - George Washington Smith dances Albrecht in the first American production of Giselle
1868 - George Washington Smith Restages The Black Crook
1890 - Maria Sergeyevna Skorsiuk joins the Russian Imperial Ballet
1919 - Ella Gordon opens the Gordon School of Dance in New York City
1926 - Essie Marie Dorsey founds the Essie Marie Dorsey School of Dancing / Mabel Jones Freeman founds the Studio for Classical Dancing
1931 - Katherine Dunham forms Ballet Négre
1933 - Hemsley Winfield dances in and choreographs Metropolitan Opera's The Emperor Jones
1937 - American Negro Ballet gives its debut performance / Mildred B. Haessler founds the Mildred B. Haessler Ballet Company in Chicago, Illinois
1939 - Bernice Hammond founds Hammond Dance Studio, Washington DC
1940 - Negro Unit of Ballet Theatre is founded
1941 - Jones-Haywood School of Ballet is founded in Washington DC
1946 - Sydney King and Marion Cuyjet found the Sydney-Marion School of Dance in Philadelphia / The First Negro Classic Ballet is founded
1947 - First Negro Classic Ballet debuts / Talley Beatty and Betty Nichols perform Lew Christensen’s Blackface with Balanchine's Ballet Society
1948 - Therrell C. Smith School of Dance is founded in Washington DC / Ruth Williams School of Dance is founded in NYC / Sydney King School of Dance is founded in Philadelphia, PA / Marion Cuyjet founds the Judimar School of Dance
1950 - Arthur Bell dances in the World Premiere of Frederick Ashton's Illuminations with New York City Ballet
1951 - Janet Collins joins the Metropolitan Opera Ballet
1952 - Louis Johnson performs in Jerome Robbins’ Ballade with NYCB
1954 - Negro Dance Theater is founded / Delores Browne, John Jones, and Billy Wilson perform in Antony Tudor’s Offenbach in the Underworld
1955 - Arthur Mitchell joins New York City Ballet / Raven Wilkinson joins the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in New York City / Janet Collins retires from the Metropolitan Opera Ballet
1957 - Ward Fleming founds Ballet Americana/New York Negro Ballet
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