{"id":10224,"date":"2021-02-23T20:04:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T20:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=10224"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:25","slug":"james-thurston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/02\/23\/james-thurston\/","title":{"rendered":"James Thurston"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Thurston<\/strong><\/h2>\n

New York Negro Ballet\/Ballet Americana<\/strong>
\nRoyal Winnipeg Ballet<\/strong>
\nDance Theatre of Harlem<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
James Thurston with Janise Turner<\/a> in a Jones-Haywood School of Ballet performance, 1961. Photo via The Pittsburgh Courier<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Washington DC-native James Thurston was a member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canada\u2019s oldest ballet company, and the New York Negro Ballet, which was known as Ballet Americana during his time, ca. 1959.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thurston was in the original DTH casts of Arthur Mitchell\u2019s Spiritual Suite<\/em> (1970) and Fun and Games<\/em> (1971).<\/div>\n
Thurston was also a member of George Faison\u2019s company ca. 1974.<\/div>\n
In 1975, he was an original cast member, assistant choreographer, and dance captain for the Broadway show Treemonisha<\/em>.<\/div>\n
\n

Thurston was a founding faculty member of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"
From left to right: Paul Blakey, James Thurston, Louise Naughton, Terry Thomas, and Graham Goodbody in Opus 65<\/em>, Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Photo by Martha Swope, via Centennial Concert Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which was the First?\u2014a historical essay on the first Black Dance Company in the USA<\/a>
\nDance Theatre of Harlem Repertory List, Columbia University Libraries<\/a>
\nAn Alumna Reflects on Duke Ellington School of the Arts\u2019 Founding Years of Activism and Artistry, Yvette Heyliger<\/a>
\nJames Thurston, Playbill<\/a>
\nDance: Faison Company, The New York Times<\/a>
\nWinnipeg Ballet To Perform At Dr. Peoples\u2019 Inauguration, Clarion-Ledger<\/a>
\nSoul Dancing at Center Was Just Too Much, Daily News<\/a>
\nWashingtonians Dig Ballet\u2026, The Pittsburgh Courier<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Thurston New York Negro Ballet\/Ballet Americana Royal Winnipeg Ballet Dance Theatre of Harlem Before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16029,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10224\/revisions\/16029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}