{"id":11039,"date":"2021-04-01T22:23:38","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T22:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=11039"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:24","slug":"ronald-platts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/04\/01\/ronald-platts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Platts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronald Platts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

New York Negro Ballet (ca. 1959)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Ronald Platts in 1953 photo of Judimar School of Dance class.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Ronald Platts studied at the Judimar School of Dance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1950s.<\/div>\n
Platts performed in an Alvin Ailey and Ernest Parham recital on March 30, 1958 at the 92nd St Y. Many other notable dancers were featured in this performance, including Georgia Collins<\/a>, Charles Moore<\/a>, Delores Brown<\/a>, Charles Neal<\/a>, and John Jones<\/a>.<\/div>\n
Platts danced with Ward Fleming<\/a>\u2019s New York Negro Ballet, which was known as Ballet Americana at the time Platts was a member, around 1959.<\/div>\n
Platts danced as a part of The Merry-Go-Rounders Company during the 1959 season at Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival. A photo of Platts and fellow company members rehearsing was featured as one of \u201cThe Week\u2019s Best Photos\u201d in a 1959 issue of Jet<\/em> Magazine.<\/div>\n
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He also performed in the 1961 Broadway production Kwamina<\/em> as a Policeman and dancer. The show featured other well-known dancers such as Louis Johnson<\/a>, Doris de Mendez<\/a>, Charles Moore, and Glory Van Scott<\/a>. That same year, Platts appeared as a Jubilee Dancer in an off-Broadway production of Show Boat <\/em>(also alongside Glory Van Scott as well as fellow New York Negro Ballet dancer Bernard Johnson<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Ronald Platts, Judy Anderson, and unknown dancer, members of The Merry-Go-Rounders, in rehearsal. Photo by Moneta Sleet Jr., via Jet Magazine<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Program of 1958 Alvin Ailey & Ernest Parham recital, featuring Platts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Marion Cuyjet: Black Ballet Pioneer<\/a>
\nRonald Platts, Playbill<\/a>
\nThe Week\u2019s Best Photos, Jet Magazine, September 3, 1959<\/a>
\nConverging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y, by Naomi M. Jackson<\/a>
\nRonald Platts, Jacob\u2019s Pillow Archive<\/a><\/p>\n

See also:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which was the First?\u2014a historical essay on the first Black Dance Company in the USA<\/a>
\n1957: Ward Fleming found Ballet Americana\/New York Negro Ballet<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ronald Platts New York Negro Ballet (ca. 1959) Ronald Platts studied at the Judimar School of Dance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the […]<\/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-11039","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\/11039","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=11039"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11068,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039\/revisions\/11068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}